Re-Do
by zapisthename
Summary: Ron Weasley should have been dead, he was killed in the snatcher attack after all, but why wasn't he. Why was he still alive, why couldn't he die. Why did he always wake up, in his bed. What did he have to change, what was time telling him? M for language. Time-Travel
1. No Surprises

**When I first came to this website, I tried dabbling in Harry Potter fanfiction, and it was fucking cringeworthy. I don't know how much better I am now, but I really hope it's better than my first few attempts.**

**This is a Ron-centric fic, I love Ron, I really do. I read another fanfic from another fandom (Time Braid) and I wondered what it would be like for Ron to actually keep looping in time. This is more about Rom coming to appreciate life as it happens to him, and is probably going to get more lighthearted if I ever write more of it.**

**I DON"T OWN THIS SHIT.**

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><p>It happens in a flash, in a matter of seconds it's all over. That's how death takes you. I would know, it's done that to me before after all, I've died several times. Some times, I even did it because I wanted to, I wanted to die, wanted to be embraced by the cold grip of death, like the third brother, wanted to embrace Death, go on to the afterlife.<p>

Unfortunately, I don't usually get what I want. This wasn't unusual either, I didn't have what I wanted, because I woke back, on my bed, in my room with the ghoul in the attic.

Someone once told me life was a gift, but these days I've been wishing for death a lot. It just doesn't come though, it eludes me, much like other things in my life that have eluded me.

If you don't know who I am by now, I suppose I should introduce myself. I'm Ron, Ronald Billius Weasley. I have red hair, and freckles. I'm eleven years old, and quite short, but in six years I'm going to be tall, and lanky. A lot of things are going to happen by the time I'm going to be seventeen. I'm going to play the greatest game of chess I've ever played, I'm going to go into a cave and fight some acromantula to save the future love of my life. My pet rat is going to turn out to be a fucking lunatic who framed someone else for murders he committed and try to get away with it.

I rise from my bed, trying to ignore the moans of the ghoul, he does this quite often at this time of day. I move towards the bathroom, one glance at the clock tells me that it's five in the morning, which means that it's an hour before my mother wakes up, which is plenty of time alone and quiet in this house, because after that it gets noisy, and today is September 1st, it always gets noisy today.

I look at myself in the mirror of the bathroom, the shower doesn't really work properly. The ponce Malfoy is probably going to tell you that us Weasleys are not capable of affording any sort of decent plumber that could come and fix our problems (and there are plenty of those), and it's going to hurt because it's right, it used to hurt a lot, to watch people like Harry and others enjoy the little things, but for me to go without any of that because I was too poor to afford anything. For a while I even blamed my dad for it, I cursed him internally, wondering why he couldn't chose to do something that actually paid, but I had grown up.

I had grown up several times over actually.

I hastily splash some water on my face, before brushing my teeth. I've done this a few times times before, this is my tenth (or eleventh, I don't even count anymore), and there seems like there isn't going to be a respite to my problems, I'm going to be here, stuck, doing the same thing over and over, forever.

I slowly open the door, hoping it doesn't creak loudly enough to wake up the house, I congratulate myself when I succeed in the endeavor, then I chide myself for being happy after doing something so trivial. I have been doing a lot of this second guessing of late, this isn't anything different. I'm stuck, I have always been stuck, I'm always going to be stuck, nothing is ever going to change. Maybe I have to accept that.

When it started, I didn't know what to think. Walking out on Harry and Hermione had been the biggest mistake of my life, I was always going to hate myself for it, but then as I disapparated away from that tent, desperate to get away from the two of them, unable to fathom how I'd feel if I ever found out that what I thought about the two of them, turned out to be true, I was filled with fear. And regret.

I had tried to justify it to myself, 'They are better off without you anyway' my conscience told me. Everybody's conscience tells them to do the right thing, mine just makes me feel really bad. I don't know why that is, but I know I want to fix it.

I was surrounded by snatchers immediately, and it got bad, and I closed my eyes as I saw the green light streak towards me. Time slowed down, somewhere I felt something fall down, I heard a clock tick, and then I heard glass breaking. Perfectly synchronized with the green light hitting my chest, and then I woke up, eleven years old, back in my room.

I've done this twice now, I killed myself the first time, jumping off the roof of The Burrow and landing on my head, instant death.

I woke up back in my bed.

The next time, I decided to leap out of the train as it took me to school. I closed my eyes as I felt death coming for me.

I woke up back in my bed.

I was going insane, I knew it, I had a death wish. The next time I decided to off myself, I'd never heard of someone casting an Avada Kedavra on themselves, and bitterly smiled at the thought of being the first in the family, and indeed the entire world to do something like that. It worked.

But then I woke up. Back in my bed.

I looked at the house, the sun was about to rise. In a while there were going to be alarms, there were going to be surprises. I just wish there could be some silence too, but today, I finally felt like I was done with trying to die. Today, I decided that I had to endure my personal hell, today I was going to have to face the consequences of the decision I made to abandon my best friends-

I look away from the house, it hurts to even think about it now. Even to try to fix a mistake like this, I am going to have to wait for years, I've never been a man that patient, but I think you can teach any dog tricks regardless of it's age if you keep at it long enough.

I smile as the sun finally comes up, and I hear the sound of footsteps, Mom coming downstairs, not even bothering with being silent.

"New day, new life"

-x-

"Are you alright?" My mom has raised seven kids, and yet the precognitive abilities this woman have still continue to amaze me. I wonder if it's a thing all women have, a capability of sensing when their sons are in distress. She can tell I'm thinking, and she doesn't think that I'm a thinker.

"Yeah" I tell her, perhaps that came out too hasty, because she raises her eyebrows, she's suspicious.

"Okay" I say, this calls for some damage control. "I'm worried, about Hogwarts" I trail off, it's not entirely false. Actually I'm more worried about having to redo something all over again, wondering if I have the patience for it, but she doesn't need to know the entire details. As a great man once said, why tell the truth when you can say nothing and not lie at the same time.

Okay so maybe no one ever said that, go ahead and sue me.

My mom has a kind look on her face, I've seen her with this expression before, usually it's reserved for Harry, but then again the bloke gets everything, and I think he deserves it, I really do. I know looking at me, and how jealous I can be, people don't think I'm capable of understanding. The love of my life thinks that I have the emotional depth of a teaspoon after all, it hurt me when she said that the first time, I can be perceptive when I want to, but it's really impossible to understand women.

"Ron, it's natural to be nervous" she tells me as I toy with the bacon on my plate. Apparently I used to do that a lot when I was a kid, because my mom has a fond look on her face.

"Playing with bacon again Ron?" she asks me. "It seems like you're coming back to normal" she tells me. "Now get ready, you have school to go to after all"

Normal? I snort. There is nothing normal about this situation at all. I'm someone who can't die, something happened when I was supposed to die, and now I can't die. I never realized how much death is wanted by some people till I actually tried killing myself, and now I'm not that scared of death, I'm more than willing to embrace it.

I think back to how I died the first time, and I wonder if there is something I'm supposed to fix, something I'm supposed to get right so that time can start working normally again. Maybe that is what it is, if I hadn't left the tent, if I hadn't abandoned the two people who I cared about more than anyone else in the world, I wouldn't be dead, and whatever happened wouldn't have happened.

That's what I had to do.

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><p><strong>If you want to see more, you know what you have to do. Review.<strong>


	2. Thinking Cap

**The response hasn't been the best for this story, I generally get around ten reviews for every chap these days, so it was pretty humbling to get only two, but I don't blame y'all for that. I know I can make this story much better, and then you're going to have to review. MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH.**

**But seriously, please review. No really, I mean . Please.**

**I DON'T OWN HARRY POTTER. I REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY DON'T**

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><p>So I've decided to keep a diary. I don't know why, but thanks to all these years being with Hermione and other people, maybe my emotional range is now officially a teaspoon. I was thinking more like a ladle, because blokes don't keep a diary, they just don't. I feel like I have to, because if I don't, I'm going to go insane.<p>

Oh yeah, the date, I fucking forgot. See, it's highly unnatural for a eleven year old to start dropping the f-bomb in public (Mum would go spare if she found out and send me a howler or something), but in this diary I can swear all I want, and no one can tell me any different. It's also protected, charmed, and everything, I even went to the library and learned how to do an Unreadable Charm all by myself, because this diary is going to be special, it's not only going to help me write down everything I've done, it's going to help me plan out my moves. And I'm going to have some moves.

I suppose I'll start with her, or at the beginning.

I was clearly not ready to see her again, I don't know how I was supposed to react, but only someone like me could forget something like that, I never was ready, and there she was, she entered the compartment, asking for Neville Longbottom's lost toad. I wasn't breathless, this was after all, a eleven year old version of Hermione Granger, she was far away from doing the great things she went on to do during the time I knew her, she had the bushy hair and the two rather large front teeth, she also had this sort of pompous air about her, it was something that didn't endear me to her at the start.

If you were to look into my Year One checklist, which is nicely written, and even underlined just one page before this, you'd see that one of my first objectives was to make sure to never make Hermione cry, ever.

What I hadn't expected was to almost break down and rush over and hug her, that was something I didn't really mean to do. Everything had gone just according to plan, I had pulled it all off. Harry had met Mum, asked to get on the platform just alright, and then I had introduced myself to him, I'd made it a point to not appear as awestruck as I had last time of course, that was only fair.

Why the hell did I have to hug her though?

Hermione had a really puzzled expression on her face, Harry merely looked bemused, I was glad that no one else was there to see me make a complete arse of myself.

I realized my mistake, and I knew I had a horrified expression on my face and my ears were turning red, the Ron Weasley people got to know very well. 'The more things change, the more they stay the same' I thought to myself, I knew I had to remain optimistic if I was supposed to not go crazy, but this was insane, this was torture.

'Think fast' I said to myself, before speaking out loud, trying to sound as apologetic as I could. "Sorry, I am so sorry, you just reminded me of my dead cousin, I took one look at you and I thought you were her embodiment" I wanted to slap myself, I was better than this when it came to thinking on my feet, what the hell was I doing?

Harry sniggered, the little bugger, _he _hadn't bought it either, and he wasn't as smart as Hermione. Speaking of her, she had a look of puzzlement on her face, it was very brief. It was something Hermione would never tell anyone, we are all afraid of things that we don't understand, but Hermione's fears of the unknown are parallel to none. The puzzlement was replaced with the same haughty expression she wore when she entered the compartment.

"It's a shame about your cousin" she said, not believing me at all. I didn't blame her. "So I can assume you haven't seen the toad?" she asked us cautiously, I wondered if she thought I was going to jump her and give her a hug again or something barmy of that sort.

"I can't say we have" Harry piped in, I was glad, because after the massive fuck up, I wasn't exactly ready to speak.

"I'm Hermione Granger" she said, ever so haughtily. She wasn't even looking at me, I was already something not worth her time. I wanted to bow my head down in shame. Here I am, a seventeen year old bloke, trapped in the body of a eleven year old, it's my body, but it's still fucking eleven years old, and I don't know how to deal with another girl who's only eleven years old.

This was supposed to go much, much better than this. I was supposed to be working on a spell when she came in, she was supposed to be impressed when I turned Scabbers yellow, I had timed it pretty appropriately, I had praised myself for being able to remember the minute details, and I went ahead and cocked it all up. Wonderful.

"I'm Harry Potter" Harry said, while I continued chastising myself for being a complete idiot. This was followed by Hermione telling Harry that he was in several books, Harry hadn't know what to make of this either, which was quite funny. It was around five minutes before she was done with dispensing her knowledge.

"You never gave me your name" she said, raising an eyebrow at me. It took me around ten seconds before I realized she was talking to me, but my behavior had already come off as strange to her, how much worse could it get?

"Ron Weasley" I said to her, I decided to smile, but she didn't seem impressed by that.

"You have dirt on your nose" she said before sliding the compartment door shut and walking away.

I absently cleaned the offending speck of dirt as I realized that I couldn't deal with any version of Hermione, even if I had the knowledge of a several dozen centuries.

-x-

"I don't want to be rude or anything" Harry began with a slight hesitation in his voice.

"No" I said pointedly, "No dead cousin, I don't know what came over me" I told him. It was after all partially true, he wouldn't understand, which was proven when he started laughing. Why would he understand what I was going through? He was eleven years old, he was going to face a lot of dangers, but he wasn't going to go insane. I felt like I was.

The look on my face told him to stop, it was one of the fine things about Harry. He was noble, he cared about what he did to other people, he felt like his actions mattered and affected things around him, and acted accordingly. He could be thick, but he tried to go out of his way to not hurt people. A real hero that guy was.

"I'm sorry for laughing" he said, he was probably worried that I was going to be angry at him. I decided not to be angry at him and just smiled at him instead.

"Don't worry about it" I told him, chuckling. "Sometimes I go insane and do really stupid stuff, how do you reckon the story was?" I asked him. He looked relieved that I wasn't offended by his laughter and began smiling again. We were smiling now, but as the years moved on, those smiles would grow fewer in number, and when I would wear that locket, in the tent, there wasn't going to be any smiles left. I wondered how we'd get on then.

"It was horrible, but it was amazing how you came up with that in such a short time" he told me honestly, I smiled at the compliment. So what if I couldn't do good improvisation, at least it was hilarious to other people.

"Do you think we should look for that toad?" Harry asked me, I shook my head, telling him that she was probably going to find it somewhere and that we shouldn't bother. If the meeting had gone well, I probably would have gone to help her and become her best friend already, but thanks to this massive failure on my part, I didn't really want to see her anytime soon.

"She seemed kind of-" Harry trailed off.

"You can say it" I said to him. "She seemed like a stuck-up bint" I told him. Harry looked scandalized at the usage of that word, but then began chuckling and so did I.

"She's probably not" I told him. "She's a muggleborn right?" Hermione had told Harry that she was when she was educating him about how he was famous. "She's scared, of this world, it's completely new to her, and she thinks that being haughty is an appropriate self defense mechanism" I began sagely explaining, Harry stared at me, transfixed. This was not something that happened in the previous timeline, I was sure of it. I was supposed to be the one who was transfixed, not him.

"So anyway, she'll probably loosen up, when I see her next I should probably apologize for hugging her like that eh?" I asked Harry, who chuckled again before telling me that it was probably the best thing to do in this situation.

As we continued eating sweets that Harry had so kindly bought for me, I explained things about the world to him, but I was still in thought. There were somethings that I knew about that were going to be really important in the future, but I had no idea how to go about them. The one thing that seemed directly in my power was Scabbers. I had done well to not let him know about anything I was doing, I didn't think he'd care if I was making some weird plans. I never talked out loud and the only one in on this secret was me. Who was going to believe me even if I told them I was living out a life over and over again?

I had to play this really carefully, I knew how the stupid relatives of Harry were going to treat him and I needed to be careful, if I was able to prove Sirus' innocence, it would help with Harry and we'd have a faithful member of the Order back, helping protect Harry. He'd probably not have to deal with the dementors, and after all he's done for me, it's only fair that I try to give him at least a small glimpse of a loving family, Sirius was just that.

Even as I was lost in my thoughts, I came across someone who had to be dealt with, and yet I'd completely forgotten about. The door slid open and in stepped Draco Malfoy, along with his cronies, Crabbe and Goyle.

I looked at him and I was filled with loathing. Here was the person responsible for the death of Albus Dumbledore, I knew that it was Snape that did the killing, but Draco played his part. He was also a complete git and I couldn't find a nice thing to say about him even if I tried. I was filled with regret, as I wasn't sold on Draco Malfoy being a death eater when Harry had told me about his theory. It seemed like a crackpot theory at the time, and I wish I'd known. He had almost killed Katie Bell. He had almost killed me.

I wondered if I would wake up in bed had Harry not found the bezoar in Slughorn's cupboard, and found that I really did not want to know the answer.

Draco Malfoy introduced himself, and the way he did it was hilarious even now, so I laughed. The last time I remember trying to hold it in, to be polite. Fuck that, I began laughing out loud on purpose. I believe they'd call what I was doing hamming, and I was completely okay with it, because Malfoy looked bewildered and outraged, and it was a look worth seeing on that ponce's face.

"What are you laughing at?" he asked me with a sneer. "I know who you are" he continued. "My father always told me that the Weasleys had red hair, and more children than they could afford"

This had angered me, I remember that. Harry looked outraged already, but this time I didn't let it affect me, and I realized I had another, smooth retort that I thought up right then and there.

"I was laughing because you introduced yourself, there is no need to do that" I told him. "My father always told me that the Malfoys had black hair and looked like someone had shoved a giant rod up their arsehole" I told him.

Was it really appropriate to crack jokes about sticking rods up peoples arses, of course not, but I never said that I was a mature person who behaved appropriately now, did I?

"I do not look like I have a rod shoved up my arsehole" Malfoy told me, his face was red, probably from rage.

"Which proves that you know what people who shove things up their arsehole look like" I told him. "Are you seriously into that stuff?" I asked him casually.

Harry was now openly laughing, while Crabbe and Goyle, stupid as ever didn't even seem to comprehend what was going on.

Malfoy wanted to say something, but then it seemed like he gave up. Ron wanted to replay the moment where Malfoy decided that this was too puzzling for him in his head over and over again.

"You need to chose your friends carefully Potter, don't throw in with his lot" he said, looking at me with as much disdain as he could muster.

"Don't throw in with his lot too Harry" I fired back. "He might probably shove something up yours too" I told him. Harry and I looked at each other before breaking down in laughter as Malfoy exited the cabin.

This was going to be a fun ride.

-x-

As I looked at the giant, imposing looking castle, I realized how much I missed this place. I suppose I shouldn't, it was a conscious decision not to go back, although had Harry and Hermione gone back, they'd be death, they were both being persecuted after all, I could have lived. As I thought about that, I was stuck with a pang of guilt. They were being persecuted, they were just as much in danger as I was, and I was a prick, I just left them in that tent. I wondered if they'd be lost without me, but I was scared that they wouldn't. Deep down it scared me that me being gone would mean that Harry and Hermione would start working like a functional unit, or as my dad often used to say, a 'well oiled machine', whatever that meant.

I wondered if I was in another dimension, and somewhere in my original dimension, Harry and Hermione were coming around to realizing just how useless I was, just how much better they could do without me. It was scary to think that way, but I wondered how far off from the truth I was. The worse the thing a person thinks about, the more likely it is to come true after all.

'Stop that Ron' I said to myself as the boats went across the giant lake. It wasn't a full moon, but the light was bright enough to cast a nice little shine on the waters of the lake. I thought I saw the giant squid somewhere in the distance. It looked imposing but it really was tame. I remember Hermione feeding it toast once.

"Do you have any idea how they'll decide our houses?" Harry asked me, there was that doubt in his voice again. I smiled reassuringly.

"Don't worry" I told him. "Fred told me that you have to fight a troll, but I wouldn't believe him. It's going to be something that is very simple, maybe like putting on a hat or something"

Harry looked at me with a puzzled expression on his face, but decided to shrug it off. After everything he had heard in the last month, this couldn't be the strangest thing of them all. Everyone gasped as we came closer, and closer to the castle. My stomach growled, and I felt guilty for even thinking about food, Hermione and Neville were also on our boat, and they had both heard my stomach growling, as had Harry.

Harry grinned and Neville looked puzzled, Hermione just downright scowled at me before looking back at the castle. I was the king of letting the quaffle in, not letting the quaffle in, saving nothing and every ring, but I was the fucking emperor of poor first impressions.

"What is her problem with you?" Harry whispered to me. I wished I could answer him, but there was no way I could. I didn't know what her problem was, but apparently I needed to save her from a troll to be friends with her, Hermione always did demand a lot from everyone.

I shrugged my shoulders, before putting a finger to my lips and telling him to be quiet lest she hear what we are saying, although she probably had already heard everything.

We finally made land to find Minerva McGonagall waiting for us. She looked as tough as she always had, but I knew that underneath that tough exterior there was just a complete sweetheart. The only problem was if anyone actually saw that sweetheart, they'd probably end up dead.

"First years, this way please" she said to all of us. There were nervous looks on everyone's faces, but I just looked at Harry and smiled again. I knew what was going to happen, and if things played out like they had in my original life, we were all going to be just fine.

-x-

_"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,  
><em>_But don't judge on what you see,  
>I'll eat myself if you can find<br>A smarter hat then me._

_You can keep your bowlers black,  
>Your top hats sleek and tall,<br>For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat  
>And I can cap them all.<em>

_There's nothing hidden in your head  
>The Sorting Hat can't see,<br>So try me on and I will tell you  
>Where you ought to be.<em>

_You might belong in Gryffindor,  
>Where dwell the brave at heart,<br>Their daring, nerve and chivalry,  
>Set Gryffindors apart;<em>

_You might belong in Hufflepuff  
>Where they are just and loyal,<br>Those patient Hufflepuffs are true,  
>And unafraid of toil;<em>

_Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,  
>If you've a ready mind,<br>Where those of wit and learning,  
>Will always find their kind;<em>

_Or perhaps in Slytherin,  
>Where you'll meet your real friends,<br>Those cunning folk use any means,  
>To achieve their ends.<em>

_So put me on! Don't be afraid!  
>And don't get in a flap!<br>You're in safe hands (though I have none)  
>For a Thinking Cap."<em>

'What an impressive poem' I thought to myself, wondering if the hat was right, and it could indeed read minds. The last time it hadn't really done much except tell me that I was yet another Weasley and that it knew just where to put me, so was this time going to be any different. Truth be told, I was really looking forward to it. I looked around and people seemed relieved that all they had to do was put on a cap. Apparently the rumor had already spread that we were going to have to fight trolls, which was completely ridiculous.

I saw McGonagall walk up towards the hat, which was placed on a nice little pedestal, she looked all formal. I wondered if Hermione would also end up all prim and proper like McGonagall when she grew old. The world we were headed towards, growing old seemed like a luxury not many our age were going to be able to afford.

McGonagall had in her hand, a list, with our names, and she began calling them out. Last name first, I watched as Hannah Abbott squeaked her way to the front and put on a hat.

I remember feeling extremely nervous the last time, being exposed like that. It was incredible that there was none of that now, all I could think of was planning my next move, and wondering about how to be friends with Hermione. I was really looking forward to not have to deal with the goddamn troll again, even if I did know how to deal with it this time around.

I watched as one by one, people began getting sorted. I was one of the last to be called. Hermione went straight to Gryffindoor, Malfoy went to Slytherin as did his too dumb to live cronies. People were whispering about in hushed tones when Harry's name came up, and the hat took time to decide where it wanted to put Harry, before finally putting him in Gryffindor. And then came my turn, but unlike last time, where I stumbled nervously on to the front, I was confident. I knew what was going to happen.

_'What is this?' _the hat asked me. _'Your mind, it's not that of a first year, oh no, you've done all this before haven't you?'_ the hat asked me.

'Yes' I said mentally, no one could actually hear what people said to the hat, I guess it was it's own way of having a nice, private conversation with the student it was going to sort. 'I have done this before'

_'Your intentions are noble' _the hat told me. _'Perhaps too noble, like you Gryffindoors often tend to be. Noble to a fault' _

'I'd rather be noble to a fault than be a fucking snake' I thought bitterly.

'_And yet you deserted your friends, in the time they needed you the most. Something that was most un-Gryffindoor like of you' _the hat told me, it felt like it was laughing.

I didn't have a witty retort this time, but I did tell it something. 'That's what I'm here to fix'

In the distant background I could see my twin brothers Fred and George whispering around, I was sure they were wondering why it was taking so long to sort me into a house and if I was even going to be in Gryffindoor. It had never taken anyone in my family as long as it was taking me this time.

'_Setting right what was once done wrong eh?' _the hat asked me. '_Indeed, a very noble intention, and maybe you're meant to succeed, for time itself seems to want you to' _the hat told me. I'd never really talked to the thing apart from at the time of sorting, and even then it was a one sided conversation that was around one sentence long.

'_You are wiser than you were the last time boy' _the hat told me. '_You have a long way to go still, and always remember this. There are times where we show courage, but there are also times where we don't show courage, and that is never something to be ashamed of, because fear makes us human'_

'Then why do I feel like a complete piece of shit?' I asked the hat.

'_Because you are human, and as long as you are human, you can be saved. Let me rephrase that, as long as you're human, you can save yourself' _the hat told me. '_I sensed greatness about you the last time too, and I can tell just by looking at the memory of your last sorting, and the fact that everyone in your family that has been sorted out has the potential to go on and do great things' _the hat told me. '_I never tell them, because I never feel the need to, but I think you need to know that you will be well suited in'_ I took a deep breath in._ "GRYFFINDOOR" _it shouted, and the hall burst into applause.

I wondered what the hat meant as I made my way back to the table, nodding my head and getting affectionately slapped in the back by Fred and George, who remarked that it really took 'too bloody long'

-x-

I am not an early riser, but this time I made it a point to rise early. I had things to do after all.

It was laying in a tent, staring at Harry and Hermione come up with grand schemes that I realized how useless I really was. Sure, I wasn't a failure, maybe even above average, but I was useless. Harry was a great duelist, as was Hermione, they both pulled their weight, while I just lay there, splinched, scared, and pissed off. I didn't want to be that guy anymore, I wanted to be good, but being good meant that I was going to need a lot of practice. I had all the hand me downs from by brothers, and I decided that my wand was going to have to get broken.

I knew we were short on money, but if I had to be of any use to this world, I needed a wand that had actually picked me, when I bought the new wand in my third year, I had instantly noticed a change in my spells, they seemed much more fluid and easy to perform (even with all that added skill, when put next to Hermione, I was pants)

The Hogwarts library opens at seven in the morning, I was all dressed up and decked out by six. I had left a note on the table telling Harry that I needed to owl my mum (which I had decided to do, only at another time) and that I'd meet him at the breakfast table at around half past eight. I then made my way to the library, which I knew was going to be deserted at this time of the day.

Madam Pince looked like she had seen a unicorn have sex with a manticore when I walked in, it was almost like no one ever came to the library at this time. I gave her a hasty smile, my short stature probably told her that I was a first year.

I knew what I needed to do, and I knew how I was going to do it. First Year was ridiculously easy, and even people who tried to flunk couldn't flunk. Since I was already well aware and already remembered a lot of those concepts beforehand, I knew homework would be a breeze. I was prepared to use the Room Of Requirement to the best of my abilities. My aim was to be good at two things, Potion making and Transfigurations, while also practicing all the spells I had learned, and hopefully learning some new ones.

I hadn't yet tried it out, but I could feel that I already knew how to do the spells I had learned in the life before, it was inexplicable, or maybe it wasn't. But I was glad that I kept those skills, because if I wanted to do things right, I was going to need all the help I could get.

I found a book on Potions and began reading it. It was really pretty basic, but it seemed to have logical explanations to a lot of things. I still remember when Hermione first told me about these things, it was the fifth year, and a day before the owl, she sat me down and cleared some of my doubts, telling me how some ingredients react in a particular way with each other. I wasn't that good a cook, but I could figure those things out.

I felt another pang of guilt coming on, I had no idea how to deal with Hermione. I continued working on it diligently, thinking about the potions only for half the time, the rest was devoted to wallowing away in guilt, having left my two best friends for dead.

"I've seen Weasleys with dungbombs, and caught Weasleys in a compromising position before, but never have I seen even a single one in the library at this hour of the day"

I whipped my head to see Albus Dumbledore smiling at me.

-x-

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><p><strong>I didn't know where to end it. <strong>

**Tell me how you feel****.**

**Sorry about the arsehole comment, but it felt like something Ron would say. **


	3. Apology Contest

**I do believe that before I begin, I need to write a forward for this chapter. As I start writing this, my story has eight reviews, so that's six more than what I had for the previous chapter, or a 300% improvement, so thank you so much for that. Please keep reviewing this fic because it gives me motivation.**

**I apologize for the forward, but I feel like I need to write this-**

**The treatment Ron receives on this website is appalling. I recently got back into HP fanfiction after a long time, I'd left because of all the stories that just seemed to bash him left and right, and maybe I should have done something about it, perhaps I should have tried to fix it by writing a story in which Ron was treated right, I don't know, it was just infuriating.**

**I'm 21 years old, and I did grow up with the books. I read the books before watching the movies, and the character of Ron always spoke to me more profoundly than any other character, because he seemed like someone you could easily relate to. We all grow up with several insecurities, and while Harry and Hermione are prodigies (one is the Chosen One, the other is amazingly smart), Ron is average even when compared to his siblings. Among everyone in his family who can fly, his flying is depicted in the most negative manner (not once has any other Weasley performed bad in a quidditch match ever), his love life isn't anything to write home about, his grades are alright, they're nothing special. In short, he's average.**

**I related to him being average, because I consider myself to be just about average. I related to not having much of a love life, I related to him being overshadowed by more successful siblings, he was a real person who had serious flaws, he was a jealous git, but it was okay because sometimes, we are all just big, jealous gits. We are all emotionally insecure at that age too, another thing that drew me to him. But despite all of that, Ron was still a wonderfully brave character. I'm not saying he didn't make mistakes, he did, but he did do good things, his moments of stupidity have been well punctuated by his moments of greatness, like every, other person ever.**

**I re-watched the movies, and then the Ron hatred became clear. It's done by people who watch the movies, or tend to base their writing on the movies more than the books (which is alright by the way) All the great moments Ron has in the book, are given away to Hermione, rendering him nothing more than a buffoon who provides comic relief (a well played buffoon, Rupert Grint was by far the best actor in that trio). I don't know why I never picked that up, maybe I was too young, but I felt outraged at how Ron was treated so horribly by the scriptwriters of the movie. He's not actually like that in the books.**

**Another problem was the chemistry between Radcliffe and Watson, which led to people shipping Harry/Hermione (a ship I've made my peace with now), and many of the 'Harmony' shippers tend to just throw Ron by the wayside, I've read some pretty bad instances (one instance where Hermione literally dumps Ron for having a small organ) of this happening, and it's not fair.**

**Why did I say all this? Because I want to change that. I want to write about the Ron in the books. The emotionally insecure, but with a heart in the right place, Ron Weasley. He has his issues, but who doesn't? He doesn't deal with them in the best way always, but who ever does? I want to write about the Ron who stood up (literally) on a broken foot in front of Harry and told Sirius Black that if he wanted to take Harry, he was going to have to take him too. I want to write about the Ron who braved his fear of spiders so he could help save his best friend. I want to write about the Ron who's been loyal to a fault, yes, his loyalty has slipped, but he hasn't been malicious on purpose, like any other human being, he's had moments of stupidity, and he's had to face the consequences.**

**There aren't many Ron-centric fics here, which pisses me off because Ron Weasley is my favorite character. This story here is an attempt to change that.**

**Sorry for the long forward, but I felt like I had to write this. **

**I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER. ENJOY THE STORY.**

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><p>"I've seen Weasleys with dungbombs, and caught Weasleys in a compromising position before, but never have I seen even a single one in the library at this hour of the day"<p>

I whipped my head to see Albus Dumbledore smiling at me. He hadn't changed much. I suppose it wasn't common for people as old has him to change, and maybe that was why I didn't notice anything different about him. He did seem to have full use of both his arms, and I know for a fact that the last time I had seen it, something had happened.

I had found out later that it was a horcrux that was responsible for this whole thing.

"You mean to say you've caught my mum and dad shagging haven't you?" I asked him bluntly, there was no point beating around the bush, plus Dumbledore was the kind of guy who'd find me saying all this really hilarious, and he did, because he began chuckling.

"I wouldn't quite put it like that Mr Weasley" he said with mirth in his voice. "But yes, I believe it was Minerva who caught them, and as she told me later on while reporting to me, they were indeed, copulating"

"That's disgusting" I said to him, and Dumbledore chuckled again. What was it with old bearded men chuckling all the time?

"Indeed Mr Weasley, I'm sure it's not something kids like to hear about their parents, yes" Dumbledore continued. "But I've grown old in this school, I've seen plenty of such incidents. Love blossoms here at Hogwarts, and it tends to give life to new people, almost like a way of giving back to the school" he continued saying. "Because of the love your mother and father have for each other, Hogwarts has gained six students, with another shortly on the way. I strongly believe that they're all meant to do great things Mr Weasley"

This hadn't happened the last time. Dumbledore and I had barely talked the last time, I don't think he even directly addressed me at any point, maybe when my father was attacked by You-Know-Who at the ministry while on guard duty, but I certainly couldn't remember any other instances. And yet this man had left me a deluminator.

The thing about Albus Dumbledore was that he planned. He was a chess player, much like me, and he planned his moves, like any other good chess player. The only problem was that Dumbledore was capable and influential enough to treat people as real life chess pieces, I didn't have that capability. I couldn't help but feel bitter over how he had gone about 'instructing' Harry on how to get rid of You-Know-Who, if you could even call it that. He'd given us fuck-all, had he told us what to do, I feel like we would be in a better place. For one thing that locket wouldn't exist, and whisper all the things that it whispered to me, and that alone could have held us together till we found the next one.

"So" Dumbledore said, mirthfully. "I see you are reading a potions book? Favorite subject?"

"No, Fred told me that Snape is really very hard on students of every other house and just looks for excuses to dock points from all of us, I'm just trying not to give him an excuse" I told Dumbledore, who seemed to frown a little bit at that. I wondered if anyone in the school was capable of really pissing off. I hadn't seen his duel with You-Know-Who at the Department Of Mysteries in our fifth year, but according to Harry he was really angry back then.

"Professor Snape, Ronald" he told me. I don't think I had ever been called that by him before. "And yes, I agree, he does behave harshly with his students, but he would never not reward genuine talent" he said to me. "He is far too honorable to not do that"

'And yet he was not honorable enough to not murder you' I thought bitterly when I heard Dumbledore defend Snape's honor.

"Oh my" Dumbledore said suddenly. "Look at the time, Ronald" he told me. "It's almost eight in the morning, now you wouldn't want to miss breakfast now, would you?" he asked me.

I shook my head.

"Well then off you trot" he told me. "And keep up the good habit of trying to, as the muggles in America say, 'keep your bases covered'" he said to me whilst chuckling. "Five points to Gryffindoor for preparation"

'CONSTANT VIGILANCE' I thought to myself. Mad-Eye was, well, mad, but I couldn't help but be fond of him. And it was with mixed emotions I left the library, and headed my way down to eat some breakfast.

-x-

"Where were you?" Harry asked me when I came to the table. He was sitting with my ever so jolly twin brothers, Fred and George, or as they often preferred being called, Gred and Forge.

"I'd gone to deliver an owl to mum, but then I realized I'd forgotten my quills so I went around the castle looking for a quill, when I didn't find anyone to loan me a quill, I decided to give up and came to the breakfast table" I told Harry. I had spent a lot of time with Hermione and I had long since realized that going to the library is not a bad thing at all, but an eleven year old Ron Weasley going to the library was not the kind of shocking news I wanted to be given.

I had a reputation as a third wheel to protect.

It took dying for me to realize just how desirable the position of the third wheel was. There wasn't much expectation on you, and yet you got your fair share of the glory, what more could a man want?

I am not going to lie to myself though, I want to beat Hermione at her own game this time. She was always the top student, always the one with the answers, I just wanted to see the look on her face when she would realize that someone had beaten her at her own game. Nothing like friendly competition to make friends.

"Ickle Ronnikins" Fred and George simultaneously exclaimed. It was amazing how in sync the two of them were.

"It's a shame-"

"That our mum-"

"Raised such a-"

"Forgetful child" George finished. Harry watched the entire exchange with an open mouth, which made me laugh.

"Shut your mouth or a blubbering humdinger is going to go inside it" I told him with a laugh, which made Fred, George and Harry laugh.

Laughter sets off a chain reaction, because soon Dean was laughing, as was Seamus. By the time Neville started laughing on the table I was sure that now people were laughing just because other people were laughing, and the meaning of the joke was lost. Our laughter didn't go unnoticed, as from the teacher's table, we saw McGonagall give us a disapproving stare, and at our very own table, almost like clockwork, Hermione threw me a disapproving stare.

'Rubbed off the wrong way Granger?' I thought to myself. This was fun, riling up Hermione. I always had fun with it, but when I realized that I was in love with her, and I was in love with our arguments. Her disapproving stare was very brief, as she quickly averted her eyes and went back to chatting with Neville, who looked significantly cowed at whatever she was saying.

"Blubbering Humdingers Fred?" George exclaimed.

"Why yes George" Fred said, dramatically.

"Where did our little brother-"

"Hear about such inane tripe?" they finished.

"Will you two stop doing that" I said. It was certainly endearing, but not for too long. I was happier that George had both ears to be listening with. "You're freaking Harry out"

"Ickle Ronnikins-" Fred continued.

"Defending his bestie?" George asked.

"Why certainly you are not-"

"Asking for a pranking"

"This food is really good George. I really want to enjoy it" I said to him, it was starting to get annoyed now. "Why don't you annoy Percy?" I asked him. Percy, who was not sitting far from us looked up and shot me another look of disapproval. It seemed like they were free and being handed out left and right to me.

"Percy!" Fred exclaimed with a look of horror on his face.

"Don't you mean" George said, and then there was a pause, I already knew where they were going with this.

"Yes, I know, Percy The Prefect" I told them. The twins began giggling and snorting again. Apparently being born on April Fools Day meant that you had the behavior of a fool.

Hermione had started talking to Percy at this point, she was going to be asking him about classes. They were very similar, both of them. Academically inherited, and had a hard on for the rules. They both took their prefect duties seriously as well, the only difference was that Hermione would never betray Harry and me, but Percy already had turned his back on our family.

I didn't have much moral ground on this either, because before I died for the very first time, I too had betrayed my best friend and the love of my life, and it was something I was going to fix in this life. My betrayal wasn't a very happy subject and a scowl began developing on my face, because all of a sudden, the twins stopped their chatter and began eating their food, and Harry looked worried.

"You okay mate?" he asked me with a certain amount of trepidation. I waved him off.

"Oh yeah" I told him. "They can get annoying sometimes, but they're still my brothers and I love them" I told him, which seemed to calm his nerves. I had never noticed how on edge Harry had been the last time we had done this. Why would I? I was different, and my emotional range was probably smaller than a pinch. I realized that it was new to Harry, all of this, and he was worried about what was going to happen. "I can't say the same for you though, you look nervous"

"I don't know" Harry trailed off. "What if I am complete pants as a wizard and they throw me out of Hogwarts?" Harry asked me. I gave him a once over. Over the years, Harry and I had become brothers in all but blood. He could talk to me about everything, I didn't know when it came to be that way, but I suppose surviving trolls, murderous plants, chess sets, spiders and every other god awful contraption that was invented in our world that we had to deal with as a team. We had to be ready to face a lot more, and if I did things right, then we were going to have to deal with a certain nose-less dark lord too.

"Don't worry" I told him, patting his back reassuringly. "I know you didn't grow up with wizard parents and have limited knowledge of this world, but a lot of muggleborns come here and they seem to get on just fine. You're not going to be pants as a wizard" I told him. "And if they throw you out, I'm coming with you" I told him. Harry had a grateful look in his eyes when he heard me say that.

"I'll say" Fred said, he had heard what I had said to Harry.

"Ickle Ronniekins has gotten sappy" George finished.

"Wow, marmalade" I said, purposefully ignoring the twins, and it set us all off again as we began laughing.

"Hey Harry" I told him, it had taken me a while to remember what Snape's first class was like, but I knew the questions he was going to ask Harry, and I wanted him to be prepared.

"What is it Ron?" he asked me as he buttered his toast.

"I've heard something positively scandalous" I told him with as much dramatic flair as I could. There was some childlike glee in Harry's face now, he was eager to hear what I had heard.

"Oh yeah?" he asked me. "What is that?"

"Apparently, if you add a powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood, you get something called The Draught Of Living Death" I told him. "Isn't that amazing?"

He looked at me with a puzzled expression on his face, before nodding, not quite sure what to make of this information.

-x-

Classes began in earnest, and I had to say, they were quite boring. I hadn't realized how easy it was, but I had been a first year the last time I had attended first year.

Don't you just love redundancy?

Tonight we were going to have to look in the sky. Hermione had once told me that the muggles had put a man on the moon, which was incredible in and of itself. I had no idea that that was even possible, but apparently it was. However it had ended in another row when I had pointed out the uselessness of sending someone to the moon, after all, Hermione herself had told me that it was nothing more than a bunch of rocks. To me, it looked like a big ball of cheese that would be really delicious to bite into and something those pretentious rich people enjoyed while drinking wine. So that was Astronomy, and apparently we were going to have to study that soon.

Then there was Herbology, and Neville was the resident Herbology genius, I made a mental note to go over and ask him questions regarding our coursework in Herbology. It was a respectable field and everything, but I could never really get into it. After this war situation was sorted out, I wanted to be an auror, so maybe I was going to have to focus on Herbology a lot more. Professor Sprout hadn't changed much either, still plump and matron like. Reminded me of my mum.

Then there was the History Of Magic. I groaned as I saw Hermione take down copious amounts of notes. This was a completely useless subject and I wasn't going to make much of an effort to pass this, it was not like I was going to return and take this after my OWL year anyway, so what was the point. I decided to spend that class playing Hangman with Harry, which was fun. It wasn't much fun when Binns caught us, but we managed to throw off the ghostly teacher by telling him we were really just talking about history. He gave us both five points each.

'Take that' I thought to myself, 'I'm on ten points already. Hermione would go spare if she found out.'

Flitwick was fun, not only is he a very clever teacher, I had learned last year that his size was only present to fool people, underneath that squeaky exterior was a fierce warrior and duelist you did not want to cross, and he didn't need liquid luck to be good either. It was however hilarious to see him topple out of sight when he read Harry Potter's name in the register.

The two classes I was personally looking forward to were Potions and Transfiguration. I wasn't bad at either, but I wasn't good either. Hermione had often told me that if I had practiced, I'd be just as good as anyone else could be, and I hadn't believed her. However the thing with Hermione Granger was she often tended to be right, and I had decided to practice. These first year spells were pretty easy anyway.

The great thing about McGonagall was how much of a softie she really was. IT was well known that she was a die-hard quidditch fan that'd put me to shame if it came down to exhibiting our knowledge about the game. She was also a wonderful chess player, although I had beaten her chess set and I was looking forward to maybe beating her some day too.

We were almost late for her class, courtesy of Harry getting lost and me waiting for him outside the class to arrive. When we entered, we saw her standing there, looking very imposing and regal.

"Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," she said. "Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned." she told the entire class. I couldn't help but believe her when she said it, she really was a no nonsense kind of woman.

Then she changed her desk into a pig, and I looked around, and everybody's faces were wide with anticipation. I laughed, we weren't going to be doing anything awesome like that for quite some time. I probably shouldn't have laughed out loud because McGonagall looked at me, and she was most definitely not impressed.

"Is anything funny Weasley?" she asked me icily.

"No" I said, rather too quickly. There were some sniggers upon seeing my predicament. McGonagall shushed them all just by raising her wand. It was clear to me even back in the day that she was capable of maintaining the order of her classroom without having to say very much.

"During my time teaching here, I've dealt with two different kinds of Weasleys" she told everyone. "They are either studious, or they are looking to make trouble"

'Great, well done Fred and George' I thought to myself.

"I really hope you are the former Weasley, because if you're not, then you're going to be in trouble, much like your older twin brothers" she told me.

"Message received" I told her. I shouldn't have done that, she docked me a point for being cheeky and thus earning me the scowls of my fellow Gryffindors.

This was followed by something I was most certainly not looking forward to, and that was note taking. There were notes, copious amounts of notes. I had done well in Transfiguration, well enough to understand all of this, but I also had the advantage of reliving my life and getting to keep all the memories. Some others were not so lucky. I watched as the notes continued being taken, and people started getting lost. The only person who seemed to not be bothered by it was Hermione, who continued furiously scribbling whatever McGonagall was telling us.

Then came the practical part of the class, we had to change a matchstick into a pin. Simple enough, even first years didn't have a problem with it, but as I watched other people struggling (which included Harry) I realized just how not prepared we were to deal with anything at that age, and yet Harry had found a way to beat You Know Who.

Well, he had gotten lucky, but you've gotta have some bollocks to even face that guy. Grown ass men couldn't do it, Harry himself had lost his parents because their best friend had betrayed them, all out of fear for the man.

"She is really harsh isn't she?" Harry commented as I watched Hermione scratching her chin. In five years, I was going to find this incredibly irresistible.

"Come on" I told Harry, trying to put his fear at bay. "She's a sweetheart deep down" I told him.

Harry just stared at what I said before finally saying- "Maybe, probably really deep"

He wasn't joking, it was just childish sincerity with which he said it, which made me almost laugh. I held it in but I had made a sound, and McGonagall was onto me again.

She came over and looked at me with a stern expression on her face.

"We have got to stop meeting like this" I told her, before slapping myself. This was Ron Weasley going out of character, I screamed internally, don't do this. I was fully prepared to face detention, and maybe an even worse docking of points, but McGonagall had a slight grin on her face, almost like I reminded her of someone. I wondered what that was.

"You fancy yourself as a funny man Weasley?" she asked me, ever the same icy expression on her face. I shook my head.

"Go on then" she told me. "Let's see how funny your transfiguration is, I haven't seen you try even once" she told me.

I had two options, fail miserably like I would in my old life, or do well and impress McGonagall. If I impressed McGonagall, I'd impress Hermione too.

'I need to stop thinking about everything like I'm trying to impress Hermione' I chided myself.

"Mr Weasley, are you going to wait till tomorrow?" McGongall asked me with an impatient look on her face. "Go ahead and perform the spell" she told me.

I had done this several times over, I knew how to do this well, I knew how not to do this well, but there was no middle ground. I waved my wand and said the incantation, and my match changed into a needle.

There was a gasp and the entire classroom was silent after that. From the corner of my eye, I could see a wondrous expression on Harry's face. I was tempted to take the transfigured needle and drop it on the floor and I was sure I'd hear it hit the ground.

It seemed like a while before I saw a smile on McGonagall's face. She was impressed.

'AHA' I said to myself.

Harry began clapping, and the rest of the class joined in. Hermione Granger didn't, she was looking at me with an unreadable expression on her face, and I felt my heart sink like a stone in water. I was sure that this stunt was going to earn me her admiration, then why wasn't it?

"Would you look at that Weasley? It seems like you're quite talented at transfiguration" McGonagall told me with a hint of a smile on her face. "But that doesn't give you free reign to joke around in my class, is that understood?" she asked me.

"Yup" I said, waving my wand and changing the needle back into a matchstick. McGonagall raised her eyebrows at my display.

"Ten points to Gryffindor" she said, if you could hear it carefully, I swear there was a certain amount of pride. It wasn't very big, but it sure was there.

The class ended soon, but no one else had managed to change the matchstick. Hermione had managed to get her matchstick silver, and pointy, and had earned a look of approval from McGonagall, but I was the only one who had managed to do the spell properly.

"That was brilliant mate" Harry told me earnestly, and I thanked him.

"It wasn't that hard really, as easy as getting a bezoar" I told him. Harry's eyes widened, he hadn't heard of that before.

"What's a bezoar?" he asked me.

"It's a powerful stone found in a goat's stomach" I told him. "It cures most poisons." I said seriously. 'Saved my sorry arse once too' I didn't say that last part out.

"Ugh Ron?"

"What is it Harry?"

"Bezoars don't really sound very easy to get" he told me.

-x-

**GRINGOTTS BREAK-IN LATEST**

_Investigations continue into the break-in at Gringotts on 31 July, widely believed to be the work of Dark wizards or witches unknown. __Gringotts goblins today insisted that nothing had been taken. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied the same day._

_"But we're not telling you what was in there, so keep your noses out if you know what's good for you," said a Gringotts spokesgoblin this afternoon._

I knew why nothing had been taken, Hagrid had taken away the package with Harry. I came across the newspaper cutting just lying on the floor like that and had picked it up.

I hadn't mentioned anything about a break in on the train, it had happened on his birthday, when Harry saw me holding the article, he asked to borrow it for a minute.

I wasn't sure if I wanted Harry to go down this road again, I could use my knowledge of the future to secure the stone, but if Harry wouldn't have the experiences he had while doing all the things he did, he wouldn't be the wizard he was today. I couldn't stop him from having adventures, but I sure could watch his back while he had them.

"This was on my birthday!" Harry exclaimed. He showed me the date under the headline. "Can you believe that? I was there" he told me excitedly. "In fact, before we got the money from my vault, Hagrid picked up a small package from-" he paused, his overactive imagination running wild.

"Wait a second" he said to me, we were descending the steps that would take us to the dungeons. Neville and Hermione were with us too, although both of them looked unhappy. I knew why Neville was unhappy, he had heard scary things about Snape, Hermione's displeasure on the other hand was probably directed at him, something he didn't understand.

"Harry" I told him, trying not to be too harsh. "I know what you're trying to say, but let's not get carried away here" I told him. Harry looked kind of disappointed that I wasn't willing to run with that, but then he shrugged it off.

"Do you know the gamekeeper? Hagrid?" he asked me

"Yeah, he's an alright bloke" I told him, Harry nodded and smiled.

"Well, he invited me to his cabin, do you think you'd like to come along?"

"Yeah sure" I told him. "But I won't be there too long because I really have to go and owl my mother" I told him, Harry nodded.

"Hey Hermione" I called out to her, Neville and Harry, who by now were aware that she disliked me immensely looked at the scene with bated breath.

"What is it?" she snapped.

"I bet you can't tell me the difference between monkshood, wolfsbane and aconite" I challenged her.

"Everyone knows that they are the same thing" she told me, with a smug smile on her face.

"Wow" I said appreciatively. I dug in my pocket and pulled out a knut. "I did not expect you to get that"

"It's really very simple" Hermione almost snapped. She saw me holding the knut in my hands and waved it off.

"Keep it" she told me. "From what I heard about your family, I think you really need it" she said.

The temperature around us dropped nearly thirty degrees. Harry and Neville stared at Hermione with wide eyes, we had stopped walking. Even they knew it was not the right thing to say, hell, even the look on Hermione's face told me that she had said something wrong, because it was clear that there was a look of guilt on her face.

I'd heard comments about our family's wealth, it had bothered me and I could never say I was over it, I hated accepting charity when Harry even offered it to me, but as long as it was someone I hated, I could deal with it, because my friends never said something like that to me. However coming from Hermione, it was like a punch to the gut.

'I deserve it, I'm getting punished by the universe for being a traitor' I thought to myself. I wondered what I had to do to get Hermione to like me, maybe it really was hopeless till Halloween, and I would indeed have to save her from a troll again. Either way, hearing it from her wasn't something I was expecting and I couldn't deal with that, so I walked away in a huff.

-x-

"You should ignore her Ron" Harry told me, but I really wasn't in the mood to say anything. Harry sensed that and shut up, I couldn't have talked to him any longer than that anyway, because Snape walked in. And there was an awed silence when he entered. We were doing the classes with the Slytherins too, and I was really not in the mood to deal with any of this right now.

I was angry, not at Hermione, I was angry at myself. She was a child, eleven years old, she could say some things and not mean it, but why the hell was I letting it affect me. I had to be stronger than this, I can't let things like this bring me down.

"I told her off for you Ron" Harry told me, trying to reassure me. I looked at him and I smiled, just so he could stop feeling bad himself. It worked because he grinned, however we had drawn Snape's attention.

Snape did not like Harry.

Okay, that was an understatement. Snape hated Harry.

I really hoped all the information I had dropped was something that Harry had remembered, and that they were indeed the right questions, because it had taken me a whole hour to actually recollect that one class.

"Harry Potter" he said, disdain evident in his voice. "Our new celebrity"

Draco Malfoy and his friends Crabbe and Goyle sniggered behind their hands. Snape finished calling the names and looked up at the class. I was struck by his eyes. His eyes were cold, and dark.

'The eyes of a murderer' I thought to myself. I didn't know if it was possible to hate a man as much as I hated Snape. Dumbledore had put his trust in him, and all it had gotten him was a knife in the back. If I wanted to earn detention, I would spit on him. I was almost ready to do it.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion making," he began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but I was sure that the class caught every word. Much like Professor McGonagall, Snape had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort. "As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death - if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

He looked at me when he said it, I groaned internally. I knew that the potion we were going to brew was a simple solution to cure boils, so I was prepared, but I could see that even with preparation, it was hard. Snape had the tendency of making you extremely nervous.

I looked around, Harry was scared, Neville looked like he was going to piss his pants at any time. Hermione had a detached look on her face, I could tell she was feeling guilty about what she had said. Malfoy and his cronies looked confident, the others wanted to prove they weren't dunderheads. An admirable goal in life, I think.

"Potter!" said Snape suddenly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Harry looked at me with a wide expression on his face, but it wasn't because he didn't know the answer, it was because I had told him. I pretended to look really shocked at the coincidence.

"Is the answer written on Weasley's face?" Snape asked him. More sniggering from the Slytherins, even Pansy Parkinson got on with it.

"No" Harry said defiantly.

"Do you know the answer?" Snape asked him.

"Yes"

"Yes, sir" Snape said coldly. "Now don't stand there like an idiot, answer the question"

"Draught Of The Living Dead? Sir?" Harry said, not quite sure about the answer.

Snape looked surprised, as did Hermione. That was weird, because I was pretty sure the last time Hermione had raised her hands to answer the question, maybe she was too distracted this time.

"Seems like someone has read the book on Potions before the class has started" Snape said, I couldn't help but feel like he was slightly surprised at the fact that Harry had answered.

"Let's see if that's a fluke" Snape continued. "Tell me Potter, where would one find a bezoar?"

"The stomach of a goat sir?" Harry said, he looked just as shocked as Snape and Malfoy did, and I figured it was my turn to snigger.

"Five points from Gryffindor for laughing" Snape said sharply, whilst turning to look at me. He glared at him, I figured that I'd rather not piss him off and just averted my eyes.

"Potter" Snape continued, he wasn't done by a long shot. "What is the difference between Monkshood and Wolfsbane?" he asked me. This time Hermione raised her hand, it seemed like she had gotten over her shock, or whatever she was feeling.

"They are the same thing sir" Harry said, more confidently. "It also goes by the name of Aconite" he told him with a measure of pride in his voice.

"Five points from Gryffindor for providing me with information I don't need" Snape said coldly. This fucked just wanted to dock points for the hell of it. However he left Harry well enough alone after that, at least in terms of asking questions.

"Pair up" he said to all of us, and we did. I went with Harry, because we were going to need it. Hermione was paired up with Lavender, I couldn't help but not be struck by the irony of that situation.

'You won't be pairing up in the sixth year' I said to myself with a smile on my face.

"What a moron" I whispered to Harry as he came over with the ingredients that were on the blackboard, as I recalled (correctly), it was a potion to cure boils. Which was good, because I had practiced.

Turns out Hermione was right, because my study of potions and ingredients meant that I knew exactly why things were being done in a particular way, and I worked with Harry. It was amazing that although this was a new life, we still gelled as well as we did towards the end of the previous one. I even managed to get Harry to perfectly crush the snake fangs.

Snape swept around the classroom like he was a bat in a cave, hovering from cauldron to cauldron, none were safe from his thinly veiled insults and criticisms. Someone had improper snake fangs, another did not do the measuring correctly. Malfoy wasn't criticized, which made me snort. Figures that Snape would be kind to Malfoy, he did murder Dumbledore for him after all.

"What is this?" Snape said as he came over our cauldron. "You've actually managed to do it right Potter, Weasley" he said to the both of us. "Who knew that the Weasleys had someone who was competent in the family?" he asked the entire class. I looked over towards Hermione, and she seemed like she was struck by another guilt pangs.

'Welcome to my world' I muttered, which made Harry ask me what I was saying.

"Concentrate Potter" Snape said to Harry. "It seems like you've taken after your mother when it comes to potion making"

That was interesting, hadn't heard that from Snape before. This was already different and fresh, however one thing was the same, and that was Neville screwing up the potion. I had completely forgotten about that, and now the cauldron that Seamus had, had melted and become a twisted blob.

Trying to be as discrete as possible, I conjured up a vial. Go figure, I actually know how to conjure things, and as Snape criticized Neville, I nicked some of the potion and put it in the vial, without getting any on myself, which was a great achievement. I was going to be more mature this time, but that didn't mean that I was not going to involve myself in petty revenge.

Seamus was excused from the class so he could take Neville (who had erupted in nasty boils) to the hospital wing while we were docked a point for not helping Neville. Snape wasn't biased at all.

-x-

"What a complete git" Harry said after the class was done. We had managed to make a potion that according to Snape was 'passable' (personally I thought it was brilliant) and we were docked another point because Harry wasted some potion while scooping it up.

"Gred and Forge told me that Snape docks points from all Gryffindors" I told him sympathetically. "It's no big deal, just ignore him"

"Do you actually call them Gred and Forge?" Harry asked me with an incredulous look on his face. I just nodded. I then looked at Hermione looking at me as we were exiting the dungeons, she was looking at me.

"You go on" I told Harry. "I have an apology to accept and a friend to make"

"You still didn't tell me how you knew-"

"Later Harry" I said impatiently, and he left. Hermione just stood there, grateful that I had sent Harry away.

We stood there, I didn't say anything because I wanted Hermione to look really, really guilty.

It was a whole minute before she finally spoke.

"I just wanted to apologize" she said to me, as slowly as she could, like it was killing her that she had done something wrong.

"Why?" I asked her. "You were telling the truth. We are poor" I told her, a little bit of bitterness began creeping in, but this was not the Hermione I was going to argue with, even if I did want to. She wasn't there yet.

"But it was such an awful thing to say" she told me.

"Yeah, it was, maybe I deserved it, I shouldn't have hugged you like that, I don't know what came over me" I told her.

"It's not the hug" she said to me. "It's that you're so good at classes-" she trailed off.

I raised my eyebrow.

"I've always been the best at studies" she said to me. "Always, everywhere. I thought I was the best here too quite frankly" she said, slowly regaining the bossy tone in her voice. "But you-"

"Here's some breaking news Hermione" I told her. "There is always someone better. I come from a family with seven children. My younger sister Ginny is the first daughter to be born to either the Weasley's in five generations. My older brothers have been Head Boy, Quidditch Captain, and Prefects. They're all good at studies and even Fred and George manage to get good grades" I told her. "No matter what I do, I'm always going to have to deal with the fact that someone in my family has done it before me"

Hermione looked aghast at that. "How can you say that?" she asked me. "You transfigured the match before anyone else, on your first try. I bet none of your brothers have done that" she told me.

"It doesn't really matter, what I want to say is that you can't feel bad because someone is better than you, because that is going to be your downfall" I knew what these words meant. I've been there, I'm living my downfall right now.

"Plus, I don't know everything, there are some things I want to know that I think you can teach me"

"What are you talking about?" she asked me. "You've done well in every class"

"Not class related" I told her. I figured that we needed to talk about something, and I knew just the thing. "You see, my dad is a nutter for Muggle made objects, goes barmy for them if I say so myself"

Hermione giggled when I said that. I continued- "And I want to thank him by giving him a gift, I thought I'd buy him something, but as you already know, we're poor" I said, and she began looking guilty again. "But I'm very interested in what Muggles make too, so what can you tell me about the fellytone?" I asked her.

Hermione laughed, and it wasn't a cruel laugh. She was amused. Good, things were returning to their status quo. "It's telephone Ron" she said.

"Yeah, I know, so how about it, you help me with muggle stuff because I want to know, and I'll help you in whatever way we can, we can benefit from the mutual arrangement of helping each other" I told her.

"It sounds like I want to be friends" she said to me.

"Yes" I told her. "Do you have any?" I asked her. She didn't answer for a while, before shaking her head.

"That's too bad then" I told her. "Because I think you'd make a great friend"

'Yes Ron' I thought to myself. 'Pump up that self esteem, give her a compliment, go on, just like the book'

"You really think so?" she asked me.

"Yeah, you're obedient, I'm disobedient. I need someone to keep me in check, and who better than you?" I asked her, smiling as I stuck my hand out. "Friends?" I asked her.

"Friends" she said, taking my hand and shaking it. "And I'm really sorry about the-"

"Oh forget about it" I said, I really meant it. I had forgotten about it. "Sorry about the hug" I told her.

"Sorry about your cousin" she said to me.

"There was no cousin, I had just gone barmy, sorry about that" she looked aghast at that.

"Sorry about your cousin if she had existed"

"What is this?" I asked her. "An apology contest?"

She giggled again, and I laughed. It felt like a weight had been taken off my shoulder.

"Now let's go, we're gonna go meet a half-human, half-giant" I told her. Her eyes widened.

"Are we really?"

"Yep" I said pulling her with me.

"Thank you" she said. "For offering to be my friend"

I waved it off. "Thanks for not making me fight a troll" I told her, laughing again at her puzzled expression.

-x-

**Please review this story. Tell me if you want to see something in particular. Ask me some questions if you want to.**


	4. Like A Ball Of Cheese

**Harry Potter and all its characters belong to J.K Rowling. **

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><p>It didn't take long for me to feel really, really good about myself once Hermione decided to become my friend. I told her I had some letters to send and that we wouldn't be there for long, I had been putting this off for a while, even though I had promised my mum that I would write as soon as possible. Maybe it was because I didn't know what to say.<p>

For a minute I considered just telling her everything, about how I was reliving my life, and how I couldn't die till everything was fixed, but she'd laugh at me, or send me to St. Mungo's. I wouldn't be able to change anything whilst sitting in the mental healing ward.

"What is she doing with us?" Harry asked me in a hushed whisper as we made our way down to Hagrid's cabin. Around us, I could see kids running around, and laughing. They were all so carefree, and I was basically living a nightmare and could possibly be going insane. I felt like there was no one I could tell, and right then, as we made our way down to the cabin, I realized just how much I really was alone, and being friends with Hermione was no longer providing me the comfort I thought it should have.

"Ron" Harry said waving a hand in front of me. "Do you just, zone out often?" he asked me. I could tell that he was only half joking. I shook my head, telling him that I'd be fine.

"I don't know" I said, shrugging. "I mean she apologized, and I forgave her, and offered to be her friend-"

"WHAT?" Harry's exclamation had drawn the attention of several people, some scowled, some others laughed upon looking at the expression on his face.

"But Ron" Harry said. "She is really mean"

"She didn't mean it Harry, even you know that" I told him.

"Maybe she didn't" Harry trailed off. "It still doesn't make what she said right though"

"Well, I've forgiven her" I said to him with a tone of finality. "Maybe you should too, if we're nice to her, she'll be nice to us"

"I don't know about this Ron, but for your sake, I'll give her a shot"

"Thank you for giving me a shot" Hermione said from behind, and I smiled. She'd heard everything else. "And I'm sorry for being mean"

Harry looked at me like someone had just hit him with the Stunning spell from the back, he was absolutely mortified. Before he could turn around and start apologizing to Hermione, she waved him off, telling him to let bygones be bygones.

'That's one shot you are not going to regret' I thought to myself before rushing towards Hagrid's cabin.

When we got there, he was standing outside, with a giant, black, boarhound. Now I'm a dog person, my patronus is also a Jack Russell Terrier, and if I was to ever get married, I had dreamed of getting a dog that the kids could play with. Hagrid's dog was called Fang, although a better name would be droopy because it looked ridiculous while it sat there with a droopy expression on its face.

It began jumping up and down in excitement when it saw us, trying to jump up and rest its hands on Harry, or me.

"Back Fang" Hagrid called out. "Yeh bloody dog" his voice was rough, I guess being half a giant does that to you. I turned around to look at Harry and Hermione. Harry was smiling, but Hermione looked downright terrified.

"Don't be scared girl" Hagrid told her. "I don't bite"

I swear I heard Hermione shriek a little.

We went inside and were served with rock cakes while Hagrid regaled me with tales of Charlie, they were pretty close. He continued telling us about the antics of the twins, and slowly the mood in the cabin began relaxing, even Hermione had let go a little and began smiling upon hearing the antics of Fred and George.

"Hagrid" Harry said suddenly, he had been silent for a while. "The day we went to Gringotts to get money, do you remember getting another vault emptied"

It was clear from Hagrid's face that this was a conversation he was not even remotely interested in.

"Yes Harry" he said in his thick accent, which could be difficult to comprehend sometimes. "But I'd rather not talk about that, why don't you tell me about your school instead"

Hermione had been quiet too, and when she heard Harry mention Gringotts break ins and a vault being emptied, she had instantly sat up. She was curious too.

As Harry told Hagrid about Snape, I began talking to Hermione.

"What is he on about?" she asked me. She didn't seem to be pleased by Harry's inquisitive mind.

"Oh, he can get really curious sometimes. I suppose it's kinda cool, you know, being in a daring bank robbery" I told her.

"It wouldn't be daring if people got hurt Ron" Hermione chided me, and I smiled, I wasn't annoyed, I missed this.

"Just let it go" I told her, but I could tell she was not happy about this and was going to try to talk to Harry and tell him not to pursue this any further.

-x-

Nothing gets the blood pumping like a good shag, and a fly around on the broomstick. That's what my brother Charlie had once told me. I was fifteen, and I paled when I heard him tell me that a shag felt good. At that time, my mind had instantly gone to Hermione. Unfortunately for me, I hadn't shagged in my previous life, and I was far away from wanting to in this one, which meant the only way for me to get my blood pumping would be a good fly.

In that case flying lessons were the best things that happened all week.

"I don't understand" Hermione said as she absently waved her broomstick around, changing the color of her socks from red to green. It was what was being taught in the Charms class at the moment. "How can you boys be so excited about flying around on thin sticks, they can't be the best thing for comfort right?" she asked me.

"Spoken like a true non-flier" I told her in a pompous tone. "There is nothing quite like flying Hermione, look, even the Muggle-borns are excited about this one"

It was true, Dean Thomas seemed to be chattering about how great it would be to fly on a broom with his best friend Seamus Finnigan.

"Tha's nothin" Seamus said. "When I was five, I gave me mam a real scare as I got on me broom and flew around the countryside" he told everyone who would listen.

Draco Malfoy had been talking about dodging airplanes all day to anyone who would listen.

"Isn't it silly?" I heard him tell Pansy Parkinson. "That those muggles would need such a big thing to fly around, but we just need a tiny little stick" he had said the word Muggle with such disdain that I was tempted to use the corrupted boil potion Neville had brewed right then and there, but there were other things at hand.

I have to say I wasn't immune to this either, I told different people different stories. I told Harry about the time I almost hit a hang glider when I was out carousing on Charlie's broom. I told Lavender and Parvati about the time I was flying a broom while my brothers sat behind and sent sparks of lights at my other brothers flying a broom. I told Neville that once I flew up so high I almost reached the moon.

"Did you really?" he asked me, he was astounded, but at the same time, what I'd told him was ridiculous and no one would ever believe it.

"Yep" I said with a completely straight face. "But as I got to the Moon, I realized that it was, in fact not a ball of cheese, so I went back"

We made our way down to the grounds at three thirty, and I was delighted that the weather was alright. Today I was going to impress everyone with what a great flier I was. However my day had soured when I remembered what had happened completely. It was Neville, I had to make sure he wasn't hurt too bad, plus his Remembrall was going to be taken from him too.

I knew that I was going to change things, but I did not want to deny Harry the joy of quidditch. After I had left them at the tent and had moved away from the influence of the locket, I'd realized just how much I missed them, both of them, it was all I could think about, making things right. I wanted make things right and Harry playing quidditch just felt one of those things that are right. I was tempted to impress McGonagall myself and take the spot, but this was not the time for it. I could always try out later for the Quidditch team, plus with Wood only being a Fifth year, it was going to be a while before he left.

"Nice day for flying isn't it Weasley?" Malfoy asked me with a smug look on his face. I was half tempted to just empty the contents of the vial on him right then, and there. But I was saving it for something really brutal, something that would hurt and embarrass him.

I merely nodded while Hermione gripped my hands tightly, as though imploring me not to rise up to the challenge.

"Do you even know how to fly?" Malfoy asked me. "Can the Weasley's afford a broom?"

"Can you fly?" I shot right back. "I'd heard that all the Malfoy brooms were shoved up your arse"

People around me laughed when they heard that, Malfoy looked like a kid whose chocolate frog had been snatched from his very hands.

"Ron" Hermione told me, she was really annoyed. "You could get in trouble for that"

"I know, count on it" I told her. She rolled her eyes when I said that.

Then Madam Hooch came down, and she had a no nonsense look on her face, but I already knew that she wasn't that scary. In fact, I don't even remember seeing her that much. We were once told that till there is a foul or something else in quidditch, a referee has to stay invisible, like he's some kind of watchful protector. I reckoned Hooch was a good referee.

"What are you waiting for?" she said, it sounded like she was barking. "Everyone stand by a broomstick"

I looked at my piece of shit of a broomstick and cringed. No one else had a very good broom either, Malfoy almost looked disgusted to even stand in the vicinity of his broom, the bloody ponce.

I looked over at Neville, who was nervously staring at everyone. Hermione didn't look too confident either, this was after all one of the only classes where I could actually beat her (if I wasn't looping that is)

"Don't worry" I flashed her a reassuring smile, and was delighted when she sent me a small smile right back. "It's gonna be alright, you too Neville" I told her. In the background, Hooch asked us to stick our hands over the broomstick.

"Now say 'UP'" Madam Hooch said, as her own broom jumped into her hands.

"Up" I said, pleased to see that the broom jumped right into my hand. I wasn't the only one, Malfoy and Harry had managed to do the same. At least the ponce wasn't lying about flying regularly. Hermione hadn't made any improvement over last time despite my words of encouragement, and that was alright, not everyone was made for flying.

I'm not even the best in my family, but I sure do love it.

Neville was looking scared, it was like he was being confronted by ten thousand Boggarts who were all showing him a very scary Snape. It was hard to believe that this easily scared kid would go on and become the brave guy that he did in our later years, but then again, no one had predicted that my emotional range was going to go above a teaspoon and it seemed to have done just that.

Hooch walked around, I sniggered when I heard her correct Malfoy's form.

"It's the way I've been doing it for years" he had told her defiantly.

"Well I'm sorry to say Mr Malfoy" Hooch said, not looking sorry at all. "You've been doing it wrong"

After what seemed like hours to me (it was getting boring watching other people get their forms corrected. Harry and I had no problem on that end, I'd been doing it for years now and Harry was a natural on the broom. Hermione had given up on saying 'up' and from the corner of my eye I saw her just pick up the broom with a sigh. Neville was already on the broom, looking pink in the face. I resisted the urge to laugh.

"On the count of three" Hooch barked. "You will all gently rise, hover for a bit and then land down" she looked at me threateningly. What the hell was wrong with all these people thinking I was some sort of prankster? "If you do anything funny" she said. "You'll be expelled before you can say the word 'quidditch'" she told us. I couldn't help but laugh, no way was anyone going to be expelled for that.

'Riddle was a dark lord and he got Head Boy, and they're gonna kick me out for flying?' I thought to myself. Hypocrites.

Well, the predictable thing happened and Neville lost control of the broom, what was not predictable was me not being able to control myself again. I kicked off instantly, flying towards the dangling form of Neville. I caught him and hoisted him on my broom, as Neville's broom fell twenty feet to the ground, I realized my mistake.

Without Hooch, Harry wouldn't get noticed, and he wouldn't be on the Quidditch team.

'Okay' I thought to myself. 'Be rational Ron'

In the distant background I could hear applause, and I felt like they were going to burst into a rendition of 'Weasley Is Our King' and sing songs about my first great save on a broom.

I began wobbling. "Neville" I shouted. "No matter what happens, stay on the broom"

"Where are you going?" he asked me with a lot of fear in his voice.

"THE HOSPITAL WING" I shouted as I closed my eyes and fell off the broom.

I really fucking hope Harry appreciates what a good friend I am and forgives me for leaving him in a lurch after this incident.

-x-

"And then McGonagall saw me catch the Remembrall" Harry said excitedly. They were in the hospital wing. I had been knocked out when I hit the ground and came to in the hospital wing. Hermione was there too, she looked worried.

"Honestly Harry" she said in a bossy tone. "Is Quidditch all that matters, our best friend could have died today"

Harry raised his eyebrow at the best friend comment but did not say anything.

"Hermione" I said to her, for some reason, I felt pretty tired. "Let it go, it was only a twenty foot drop"

Both Harry and Hermione looked positively aghast at that. "You got Malfoy good" I said looking at Harry, who grinned.

"Seriously Ron, something could have happened to you" Hermione said as she got up in a huff. "Can you please take your life seriously?" she asked me. "And can you take a mere game not as seriously?" she asked Harry before storming out of the wing.

"She's just worried about you" Harry said trying to defend her. "She was really nervous when you hadn't woken up for a while, I had to stop her from going to the library and look for a cure" I laughed at that.

"That's okay" I told him. "Congratulations man, the youngest seeker in a century right?" I asked him. Harry's smile faded and he began feeling guilty.

"I don't know Ron" he said to me. "I mean you had to fall off a broom for me to get picked for this team"

"Yes" I told him. "And you better remember that"

I was out of the wing as soon as I woke up, Madam Pompfrey had fixed me up pretty well and told me to take it easy for a while, but that I was fit to leave, and so I did. Hermione seemed glad that I was healthy again, and smiled at me when I came back to the dorm. I ran into McGonagall outside, who told me that what I'd done was the stupidest yet the bravest thing she'd seen a first year do, and decided to cut ten points for being reckless and gave me ten points for being brave.

'Just wait' I thought to myself as I watched her walk away. 'Just wait till this year is over'

The reception I got in the common room was pretty great. It seemed like it was a joint party for both Harry and me. The twins had even managed to get some butterbeer. Hermione wasn't happy that rule breaking had led to Harry getting on the quidditch team but the festivity of the situation meant that she wasn't complaining about it.

We were accosted by Malfoy and his cronies as we were eating dinner later that night.

"When are you going back on the train Potter?" he asked Harry with a snide look on his face.

"Look at you" Harry said. "You're brave now that you have your lackeys behind you"

"You know" Malfoy said. "I can prove to you how good I am, how about you and I have a wizard's duel at midnight?" he asked Harry.

"Piss off Malfoy" I said to him, which made Hermione scowl and Neville jump. "Go take your wand and stick it up your-"

"YES I GET IT. MY ARSE" Malfoy shouted, the room that was completely abuzz with laughter and noises of people eating was now suddenly dead quiet. "You know what, you're going to pay for that" he told me.

"What are you going to do?" I asked him. "You need to pull the wand out of your-"

"Don't" Malfoy interrupted me. "Are you going to be his second or not?" he asked me.

"Who's yours?"

Malfoy looked at Crabbe and Goyle, sizing them up, before saying that he was going to pick Crabbe. We agreed to meet in the Trophy Cabinet and then Malfoy stormed off.

"Ron" Fred said to me with an earnest expression on his face. "I'm really proud of you"

"What is a wizard's duel?" Harry asked me. I explained what it was to him, before reassuring him that he and Malfoy weren't going to have some kind of grand fight and it was going to be more stuff like shooting sparks and the like.

"He's not going to show up" I told him. "We shouldn't either"

"What do you mean we shouldn't show up?" he asked me. "It's going to make us look like cowards"

I sighed, if this was my first time on this thing, I'd be itching to fight Malfoy, but he was only trying to get us in trouble. This was also the day we had discovered Fluffy, the adorable music loving three headed dog. I could let things play out as they generally do and discover the dog along with Harry, while risking detention, or drawing Hermione's ire. But I wasn't interested in doing either of those things.

"Listen, what do you think he's going to do?" I asked Harry. "We aren't good enough to fight duels, he knows that, I know that, he's trying to get us into trouble, which is what is going to happen if we go there" I told him. "Let's lay off on that idea alright?" I asked him.

It took some convincing, but finally Harry reluctantly agreed not to go chasing Malfoy and seeking a duel.

"It's a good thing you don't actually believe Malfoy" Hermione told me later, "It's pretty obvious what he was trying to do"

The one thing I was going to do differently this time was wander around, and find the third floor on my own. Another reason was that I was trying to look for some more books in the restricted section, books that would help me defend myself better, spells that were going to help me mold the future into a nice, convenient pretzel that everybody could stomach, and how hard could that be really?

It was with slight trepidation that I cast a Disillusionment Charm on myself, hoping to whoever it was above that it would work. I checked myself out in the mirror and it did seem like it was holding up. Obviously, it was not Harry's cloak, but you'd have to look really closely to find anything, while it'd give me time to bail if someone suspected anything. I just hoped that I wouldn't run into any teachers, like Snape, and Dumbledore, who were good at finding this kind of stuff.

As I made my way to the library, I found the classroom. I'd been here before of course, a long, long time ago. I was only a kid then. Hell, I'm not that much older now, I'm still mentally only around eighteen years old, but I'm still older than what I was back then.

How could I forget something like this, it was the mirror. Wasn't it called the Mirror Of Erised or something? Harry had brought me here, telling me that it was something that showed you your family. Of course, that wasn't the case as Harry later told me, it showed you your deepest desires, what your heart truly wanted.

And for some reason, I wanted to see what my heart truly desired.

When I entered the classroom, I was glad to see that it was still there. For some reason, it was less dustier than I remembered it, or maybe it was not that dusty at all.

I came across the mirror, and the inscription.

_Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi_

Of course, when looked at in reverse, what it really said was 'I show not your face, but your heart's desire'

'Cute' I thought to myself as I stood in front of the mirror, waiting to see what it was I really desired. I took off my Disillusionment Charm.

When I saw the picture, I was breath taken. It wasn't what I had seen last time. When I was truly young, I realized that I had desired things that in the long run held no meaning. I had wanted to be a head boy, and the Quidditch Captain. I'd be lying to myself if I said that I deserved either of those things. Better people deserved it, and maybe I was just not ready to accept that.

This time what it showed me was different. It was Hermione, and I. We were holding hands, and smiling. She seemed to have a big belly. She was carrying my child.

I don't know how long I stood there, staring. But then a gust of cold wind distracted me, I whipped around, only to see nothing. That was when I realized how dangerous this mirror was, just how alluring it could be. As tempting as this was turning out to be, I knew I couldn't be here. Not today, not any other day.

"Get your head together" I said, with a little bit of bitterness in my voice. "This is not real"

"Indeed it isn't Mr Weasley" a voice called out. Of course, it had to be Dumbledore. I always screw everything up.

"It's not what it looks like" I told him, perhaps a little too quickly.

"I think Mr Weasley" Dumbledore said with a smile on his face and mirth on his voice, "This is exactly what it looks like"

"I was trying to go to the library" I told Dumbledore. "I wanted to finish some homework" that was obviously a lie, a lie I hoped Dumbledore, a master Legilmens was going to buy.

"Isn't it very alluring Ronald?" Dumbledore asked me. "Too see what your heart truly desires? To see it come to reality, if not in this world then in the world of the mirror?"

I nodded, suddenly my throat felt like it had jammed, maybe it was the emotions.

"What do you see?" I asked him, my voice barely a whisper. Dumbledore picked up on it, because he seemed concerned. I knew he was a manipulator, I had always known that he was lying to get things done, maybe it was for something greater than anything anyone of us mere mortals could comprehend, but in that moment I saw Dumbledore for the man that he was before he died. He could have been like other people and could have punished him, but Dumbledore cared. He cared about everyone, he cared about the bad students, and he cared about the good ones too. The look of concern in his eyes had me surprised for a bit, and strangely moved.

"Ronald?" Dumbledore asked me. "Are you okay?"

I nodded. "What do you see?" I asked him, much better this time.

"I see myself holding a pair of new socks Mr Weasley" he said to me, the mirth back in his tone. But I knew he was lying, he saw something much more. Maybe it was because I had seen something I could have had, and lost, or maybe it was just me being older and slightly wiser, Dumbledore was lying.

"That can't be true" I told him. "You see something else, don't you?" I asked him. Dumbledore looked taken aback by that question, almost like he wasn't expecting me to demonstrate that kind of perception.

"You shouldn't underestimate yourself too much Ronald" He told me. "You are far more smarter than you give yourself credit for" he continued.

I knew I was blushing. Even though in the dark, you probably couldn't tell. He was after all the greatest wizard to maybe have ever lived.

"Yes, I don't see myself holding a pair of socks, but it seemed like an answer I am ready to deal with Ronald" he told me. "You see, this mirror, is dangerous. Many a great man have been lost standing and staring in front of it. Don't be that person Mr Weasley"

I nodded. "Professor" I told him. "I won't come here, but I don't think you should move the mirror"

He seemed interested when I said that. "What made you think I was moving this mirror Mr Weasley?" he asked me.

"Others are going to find them, and while it is dangerous, it still is a good lesson don't you think?" I asked him. He chuckled.

"That sounds like something I would say" he told me. "Very well, I agree, it should be left here, for testing other people, but I'd better not see you here again Mr Weasley" he told me. "Now while I don't like giving out detentions, Argus wouldn't be so generous. I suggest you sneak your way back into the dormitory. Good night" he told me and walked away, his robe sweeping the ground. I watched him leave, awed.

"What a crackpot" I said out loud when he was out of sight.

-x-

I decided to exact my revenge on Malfoy the next day. As I walked in to breakfast, he seemed surprised to see Harry and I both walking around, not bothered by any of the things that he assumed happened last night. Hermione waved and Harry waved back, walking over. I told him that I had some business to attend to, and walked towards the Slytherin table.

"Your table is that way Weasel" Crabbe called out as I approached. With his child like voice, he was hardly intimidating.

"I know you idiot" I told him. "I'm surprised you were able to string a sentence together"

Daphne Greengross and Tracey Davis chuckled at that. Malfoy looked worried, a look I decided suited him well.

"Now listen here" I told Malfoy. "I know what you were planning on doing, but it didn't work. It will never work, because I'm smarter than you"

People sitting nearby perked up, waiting for a confrontation.

"Try something like that again, try even thinking of doing something like that again, and I'll make you regret being born" I told him, and much to my delight, he was intimidated. I did know how to do that after all.

"Hey Ron" Neville told me. "Where were you last night?" he asked me. "I came to bed at around two and you weren't there"

"I was staring at the moon Neville. I was kinda hoping that it really was a big ball of cheese" I told him, with a wink.

"What's going on Harry?" I asked my best friend, who was looking contemplative.

"Well, now that you ask, I've been thinking about that Gringotts robbery"

I made it a point to roll my eyes. I had forgotten just how inquisitive Harry could get sometimes, he really did have an urge to find trouble.

"Didn't I tell you to drop that?" I asked him. "What's the point of digging into something that is not our business?" Hermione nodded when I said that.

I knew he wasn't going to drop it, I was counting on him not dropping it. But it couldn't seem like it was coming from me. Harry Potter had to defeat You-Know-Who, that's how the prophecy went, or something like that. He couldn't be the person he was if his experiences hadn't shaped him. That meant throwing him in a lot of danger for no reason, and this was going to be his first encounter with the so called dark lord, which meant this was something he couldn't miss.

"I think Dumbledore hid it in Hogwarts" he told me, completely ignoring my last sentence. "It makes total sense now, why the third floor is cordoned off. It's because Dumbledore has hidden whatever was in the package there"

"You know" I began. "I really think-"

I couldn't really say anything because this was the moment owls began flooding the great hall, bringing the letters for the day. I did manage to send a letter, not before getting chastised by my mother for falling off a broomstick, and Charlie asking me if I was alright because I always seemed alright on a broom to him. I wanted to tell him that I fell off on purpose, risking my life and limb so that my best friend could play in a quidditch team, but how the hell was I going to write that down. I'm not that good a writer.

What distracted everyone was a big package, that looked suspiciously like a broomstick, being carried by owls that looked like they would drop dead any second. Those broomsticks were very heavy after all. This was Harry's first broomstick, the Numbus Two Thousand, and just like that, I felt a slight flicker of jealousy. He had something I could never afford, and when this broom would break, he'd get a Firebolt. I'd have to work for years just to be able to afford a decent broom.

'Fuck you Ron Weasley' I said to myself. Maybe I was trying to make myself feel more bad and less jealous, I don't know. Maybe I was fooling myself, and this was all just a big joke. I knew that I had no reason to feel jealous, and yet I was. I was feeling jealous of an eleven year old kid.

I stared in silence as Harry admired the broomstick, and there were appreciative 'Ooohs' and 'Aaahs' on both ends of the table. Malfoy came over and probably said something offensive, but I didn't even listen, I didn't even care.

"I need to go" was the first, and last thing I said. Just like that, I left.

The funniest thing about all this is that I wasn't really all that jealous the first time this happened, and yet I was this time. I wondered if I could have let Neville get hurt, and then taken the glory all for myself. That was something I most certainly could have done, maybe I even would have at some point. I made my way to the Room of Requirement, this wasn't a problem that could be solved normally.

'I need firewhiskey' I thought to myself, pacing in front of the room. I almost groaned when the door materialized and I stepped in.

I got into trouble, but it wasn't too bad all things considered. I only lost fifty points and was stared at with hatred and disgust for the next week or so, while Harry and Hermione were puzzled as to why I would do what I had done.

-x-

Halloween had come, and I had mostly forgotten about the incident. I was filled with so much self doubt when it had happened, I wondered if I could even carry on with the mission I had given myself.

I was mostly a ghost, not really giving a single shit about anything that was happening. It was going through the motions, I did not enjoy any of it. I just kept going. Malfoy apparently had decided to wage some sort of war against me for threatening him the way I did, and I had almost been jinxed by a couple of fifth year Slytherins. My reflexes meant that I managed to escape, but that had angered me.

"This means war" I told Fred and George later, as I absently felt the vial of the screwed up Boil Cure potion Neville had made for me.

It was charms class, and how could I forget this. This was a day before we had become fast friends the first time we had done this. Hermione and I, it was here I'd shown just how jealous I could be. But it was also here that I should have figured out that listening to Hermione Granger wasn't always a bad idea.

This time things were different though, I was doing well in class, which meant I was partnered with Neville and Harry and Dean were partnered up. This meant Hermione and Seamus were partners. The lesson sure did move along much better than the last time I remembered it. The problem really occurred when the class was over. I told Hermione that I had some letters to owl, as I made my way back from the owlery, I saw Pansy Parkinson, Millicent Bullstrode and Draco Malfoy. They were talking to Hermione, or more like bullying her, and laughing at her. She was in tears.

I was filled with rage, rage like I had never felt before, and all of a sudden I was shaken out of my funk. Hermione was in trouble and needed saving, and I was going to do it.

"OY" I shouted, running over to Malfoy and his two bitches. "I don't believe it, you found yourself a female Crabbe and Goyle" I said in mock surprise. "They look like cows too"

Pancy and Millicent began shouting, but Malfoy stopped them.

"Come here to defend your Mudblood friend Weasley?" he asked me. "Why do you even spend time with her, if not for you, she'd have no friends. She's a nightmare"

Oh oh. Hermione let out a gasp, and then ran in the opposite direction. I was seeing all kinds of red now. Now was not the time to get in trouble though, I had to go to the bathroom and make sure Hermione was alright.

"Listen Malfoy" I told him. "You got lucky this time, but always sleep with one eye open, because I'm coming for you" I told him. "And you two cows as well, you're all done"

-x-

"Can you just stop crying and come out?" I asked Hermione.

"Leave me alone Ron" she said to me, between tears.

"I'm not going to leave you alone, you're my friend after all"

"Why am I your friend?" she asked me. Maybe she thought it was a difficult question, but it wasn't a difficult question. The correct answer to that would be because I loved her and if I couldn't have her as my girlfriend, I could at least be her friend, but I suppose telling a twelve year old that wasn't the right option.

"That is such a simple question" I told her. "You're smart, and you're bossy, you piss a lot of people off, but your heart is in the right place, and you might not know how to express it properly, but you care" I told her. "And you will learn how to express it properly, I'm sure, but seriously, crying in the bathroom won't do anything, so please come out, and let's go to the Halloween feast because I'm hungry"

There was silence for a bit but finally the door opened and she came out, her eyes were red but her cheeks were pink. What I'd said had gotten to her.

"That was a very good answer" she told me as we walked back to the dorm.

For the first time in a long time, I felt better. For once, it felt like I had all the answers. Now all I had to do was make sure Malfoy got his just dues, and I knew what I had to do.

-x-

**So that's it. Tell me what you thought of this chapter.**


	5. The Agent Of Time And Fate Itself

**Harry Potter and all it's associated characters belong to JK Rowling, and I don't mean to profit from this story in anyway.**

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><p>I was hunched over the chessboard, observing my opponent's last move closely. This was the toughest opponent I had ever faced in my life, and it was getting harder with each move. It was like he was in my mind, I had never faced someone so amazing at chess before, I'd always thought I was the best, but apparently that wasn't true.<p>

"Are you playing chess with yourself?" Fred suddenly asked me, incredulously. I looked at him and I winked. I had always been the best chess player in the school, even in my family. My father had introduced me to the game very early on in my life, because my mother had her hands full with all her other children, and so I had slaved over the chess board, watching other people play, sometimes my uncles, some other times the other few guests that came over to our house, and I learned.

When I beat my dad, a very good player in his own right, I realized that I had the knack for it, and I had gone on a roll. Among the more memorable chess games I'd played, one was in my first year, where I sacrificed myself to make sure Harry and Hermione go through. I had never regretted that move even once. As the years went on, I'd only gotten better at it, but now that I was back in time, there was really, no competition whatsoever, maybe this time if we go through the chess set, I'd be able to get all of us through.

"You're playing chess" George said.

"With yourself?" Fred finished.

"Alright" I snapped, "It was kinda funny when you did it to freak Harry out, you need to stop that and speak normally, we all get it, you're twins and you share an incredible mental connection, now will you listen to what I have to say"

That was what this was about, I'd used an owl and sent Fred and George a note, asking me to meet them at this hour, the hour where everyone slept.

"Okay Ronniekins, this better be good" Fred said as he sat down opposite me, and observed the chess board.

"Okay" I said to George. "Here's the deal, I need your help with a war"

George immediately perked up, Fred threw his arms in the air in frustration then looked at both of us, he was obviously interested too.

"What is this war you speak of brother mine?" Fred asked me.

"I thought that'd get your attention. Yesterday evening, after our charms class, Malfoy and his two female cronies, Parkinson and Bullstrode decided to accost Hermione, they called her a mudblood, nightmare and told her that she has no friends"

Fred and George were always jokers, but it was their reaction that solidified how great they were as people, they might not take much seriously, but even they knew that using the word Mudblood was not something we did, and anger flashed in their eyes.

"Isn't Granger your friend?" George began hotly. "How dare they say something like that to her, and you didn't do anything?" he asked me.

"Wait a second" I said defensively. "What they said got to Hermione, and I had to go calm her down and assure her that I really did value her friendship, I made a choice" I told them.

"If it was me, I would have hexed them" Fred mumbled.

"You still can" I told them. "I have something"

I pulled out the vial Neville had made, it would be fun using it for sure, but there were things that Fred and George could do that just didn't match up to anything I could think of.

"This, was made by Neville" I told them, tapping the glass vial. "It's a potion that is supposed to cure boils, but Neville's clumsiness meant that this potion actually gives people boils" I finished, smiling.

Fred and George stared at the vial, before identical grins began appearing on their faces.

"You want us to use this on Malfoy?" Fred asked me.

"Go nuts" I told him. Fred and George smiled as they took the potion from me.

"What about the two girls?" they asked me.

"Make their lives miserable Fred, George. I told them I was coming for them, which means Malfoy will think everything that happens to him is my fault, that allows you to evade suspicion, and I can always prove that I had nothing to do with any of the incidents, does that sound tantalizing enough to you?" I asked them.

They nodded.

"This is going to be incredible" I told them.

The next day, the mood around our breakfast table was more subdued than anything else. Harry had heard about what had been said to Hermione and he was blistering, his reaction brought a smile to Hermione's face. Somewhere along the way, they had become friends too. Seamus and Dean weren't too happy, nor were Parvati and Lavender, who assured Hermione that they were her friends.

"Not in the sixth year" I mumbled when I heard Lavender say that to Hermione.

"What did you say?" she asked me sharply. I was taken aback as I assured her that I had indeed, said nothing of note.

I was almost ready to settle into eating my breakfast when I was accosted, by Snape.

"Weasley" Snape said to me, his sudden appearance made poor Neville jump out of his seat.

"Yes Professor?" I asked him, trying to sound as polite as possible.

"Draco Malfoy tells me that you have threatened him with serious bodily harm" he said to me, almost snarling at me. Hermione gasped and Harry just looked impressed that I was able to stand up to Snape without bothering him too much.

"And where is his proof of that?" I asked Snape calmly. "I'm not going to accept something like that without any proof"

"I believe that two other witnesses have supported his statement" Snape told me with a sneer on his face. "Parkinson and Bullstrode" he added.

"Yeah, his very good friends, indeed, they aren't supporting him at all, just telling the truth" I said dismissively.

"Do not talk to me like that Weasley" Snape said dangerously, I had to admit, that even for someone who was a complete scumbag, Snape could be pretty intimidating.

"Listen Professor" I told him. "I have better things to do than to threaten Ferret Boy over there, but if you want him to stop getting threats like that, maybe you should stop him from using the word Mudblood" I told him. He looked gobsmacked at that, I realized that this was a look I liked on him.

"Oh yeah, and I'm willing to take Veritaserum to prove it to you if you'd like" I said bluffing. Using Veritaserum was not allowed on innocent people, but I was a first year, someone who was not expected to know these intricate laws that existed, and Snape seemed to almost buy it.

"Detention Weasley, tonight" he told me and swept away, bat like.

"Great" I grumbled, sitting down.

"That was amazing" Neville told me. "The way you stood up to him"

"Neville" Hermione said, scandalized. "Ron, you shouldn't have spoken to him like that"

"I can talk to him however I like Hermione" I told her. "He is a mangy cunt after all"

Hermione, Harry and Neville all looked scandalized at that. That was a slip up, it was something seventeen year old Ron would say, not something you'd hear from an eleven year old. I had the decency to quickly cover my mouth with my hands, and look as scandalized as the rest of them.

None of them spoke to me, instead they decided to just stare.

"I guess breakfast is ruined" I told them, suddenly not feeling very hungry and feeling more resentful at having to be trapped in the body of a eleven year old kid with little independence. "I'm gonna go and try eating a giant ball of cheese" I told them as I got up and left the table.

Detention that night with Snape was disgusting, to say the least. He had me clean nasty and disgustingly dirty cauldrons with a toothbrush, and made me wish I'd called him a mangy cunt a thousand times for having me do this. I knew how to do magic after all, but that was not going to help here, as Snape watched me with special interest.

However Fred and George had picked up on my detention, they realized that I now had an alibi, and as I was almost done cleaning the last cauldron the door to the dungeons burst open and the dog faced Pancy Parkinson stepped in. I'm still wondering what she was up to during the year of us doing the bunk, she wasn't talented enough to even make the ranks among death eaters, but she'd be having a comfortable enough time over there.

"What is it Parkinson?" Snape asked, not looking pleased that his watch over me had been interrupted.

"It's Millicent sir" Pansy told him, she sounded like she had been crying, and her eyes certainly were red. "She has nasty boils that have erupted on her face, and Draco has hair growing all over his face"

Snape turned to look at me, and I felt like he was trying to invade my head, I decided to defiantly stare right back at him, daring him to insinuate that I had managed to pull off a prank right under his nose.

"It was him" Pansy said shrilly, looking at me and pointing a finger at me. "He did it, I know it, I just know it"

"I was right here" I shot back at her, "Cleaning cauldrons for Professor Snape, are you suggesting that I somehow managed to get away from right under his nose and do something to your idiotic friends?" I asked her. She had nothing to say to that, but Snape did.

"Weasley, one of your friends is definitely behind this" he drawled, slowly. "And when I prove it, you better hope that the Headmaster does not expel you"

"Good luck with that" I told him, with as much sarcasm as I could show in my voice.

"Fifteen points for cheek Weasley, your detention is over, be gone" he told me. "And be careful"

"Shouldn't you be saying that to Pansy? I think she's supposed to be next" I told him as I left the room, slamming the door shut behind me.

The entire school was in an uproar over what had happened to Malfoy, however the efforts weren't as serious as we'd hoped. Both Bullstrode and Draco were right back at breakfast the next morning, I made a finger wagging gesture at them, and was pleased to see both of them gulp. However Fred and George had decided that since Pansy had gone unpunished, they'd just have to punish all of them again.

Draco ended up in the hospital wing again, he slipped on some sort of gunk and had broken his lung. Millicent Bullstrode had been locked in a broom closet and had shrieked for almost an hour before she had been let out. Pansy was left unharmed again.

Something told me that Fred and George were just putting her on the edge without doing anything to her, which in and of itself was a very potent prank. Snape was glaring at me as usual, but this wasn't Fred and George's first rodeo (a great saying Hermione once taught me) and they had managed to somehow avoid being caught, and since I had nothing to do with it, I got away with it too.

The spoiled boil potion was replicated, and then used on the Slytherin table, and the entire table erupted in nasty boils the next day, no one had any idea (including me) as to how someone had managed to pull off the prank in full view of the teachers, and Fred and George seemed adamant that they weren't going to reveal their 'trade secrets'

October passed into November, and I fell into the motion of the new year again. The prank war had stopped and so had Malfoy's attempts to belittle Hermione for being Muggle Born, and Harry's friendship with her continued growing stronger, till it reached a point where it was similar to what they had shared the previous time we had gone through all of this.

November also brought the first quidditch game, the last time I had seen this, Harry had got the snitch, by swallowing it. I went up to a senior Ravenclaw, who was responsible for the Hogwarts Gambling Scene.

Gambling was illegal to say the least at the school, and was punishable by detention, and yet there was a complete, secret gambling ring, and it ran deep, really, really deep. I had borrowed a Galleon from Harry, telling him that it was due payable later and had gone off to place my bets, telling the Ravenclaw that I wanted to bet on Harry Potter swallowing the snitch before getting his hands on it. He was so amused by my bet that he gave me odds of seventy five to one, and I smiled, knowing that it was going to be his loss, and wishing that I had borrowed more.

The match went exactly as I remembered it, I wanted there to be a smooth game, but I felt that it was time to arouse the suspicion of Snape trying to kill Harry into my best friends, and as usual, after a certain amount of time, Hermione spotted Snape, mumbling something and went off to set a fire, which was fine. The match ended with Harry swallowing the snitch, and the Bet master to look at me with suspicion in his eyes.

"Here you go" he grumbled later on, handing me seventy five galleons. That was probably more money than all my family had at this point, maybe only Fred and George were richer. Making a mental note of buying a better want next year, I went and had the money safely stored in my trunk, only after returning two galleons to Harry, and feeling strangely tempted by running a pyramid scheme (another thing about those crafty Muggles that Hermione had taught me)

The classes seemed very easy, including potions, and I was getting really good at this, I decided to make notes, like the Half Blood Prince had in his own book. It had come as a shock to me that they never directly told us things that I discovered as I read about the ingredients in my pastime. I wasn't sure if I was going to take to reading, but the things eleven year old's did never seemed to excite me like it had the last time, which was why I ignored Harry and Hermione when they pestered me about Snape being guilty.

"We met Hagrid after the match, remember?" I told them. "He told us Snape had no reason to kill you, and I believe Hagrid"

Somehow, Harry had wandered alone in the corridors at night and discovered the infernal three headed dog known as Fluffy. Quite honestly, I was angry that he had gone without me, I had hoped that we'd discover it while having a go at his invisibility cloak that was due Christmas, but apparently that was not going to be the case anymore.

"I'm telling you" he said to me defaintly. "There was a three headed dog, on a trap door, alright, it was on a trap door, and it is obvious now, there was a package removed from Gringotts, and then they tried robbing the vault, but obviously it had been moved, to the safest place there is, Hogwarts, the package is right here and Snape is trying to get to it"

I was impressed by his skills of deduction, but I had to play the part of the skeptic. "You're reaching too far Harry" I told him. "I don't think that there is anything you need to worry about from Snape"

Harry seemed adamant enough to drag me out of bed and show me the three headed demon dog, which looked as imposing as ever, I still couldn't believe that it was called Fluffly.

The strangest thing was that Hermione seemed to have jumped on to the 'Snape is guilty' bandwagon too. She'd done this the last time, but after knowing her for almost eight years, it was amazing that she had actually considered this option.

Hermione and Harry continued their snooping, and I tagged along, acting reluctant as to not raise any suspicion. I continued working on spells, my Transfiguration seemed to improve, and so did my Potion making. I had come across an Anti-Animagus potion in a library, and had managed to have a few test swings at it, and I had no idea if it was working. It still was the blue color the book had suggested, and I was sure I had done everything right. I decided to go to McGonagall during the Christmas break (as it was the last time, we were staying over) and asking to try the potion on her and seeing if it would work, then I would ask her if she'd stay and observe what happened when I tried it on a non-animagus, pull out my rat, and viola, Peter Pettigrew exposed.

I was working on non-verbal skills too, trying to get as better as I could so that I could teach Harry and Hermione to be as good and prepare them better for the troubles they were going to face, but I needed to work on that.

"Wow Ron" Hermione gushed as I non-verbally changed a toothpick into a very sharp needle. She hadn't noticed that of course, or she'd be extremely suspicious.

"You are really good at transfiguration" she told me with a mixture of admiration and jealousy in her voice.

"You can be too, you're even more naturally intelligent than I am" I told her. There was a faint blush that had begun to creep up on her face, I wondered if she had started harboring a crush on me already, Ginny had once told me that girls developed crushes earlier than boys.

"Come on Ron" she chided. "You are lying, there is no way I can pull this off"

"You can" I told her. "I can teach you"

I had done some research on magical cores, and how they developed, and the concept was pretty simple. Some people had naturally great magical cores, while some others were good at it by repeated practice. I suspected that Hermione and Harry, who in the original timelines were much better at magic than I was, were people with great magical cores. A great magical core was one that was large, and thick, and it got bigger with age and practice.

There were ways to find magical cores that involved Arithmancy, something I hadn't picked up yet and had decided to wait till I was in the third year to learn, but with Hermione signed on to train with me, it didn't take me long to rope Harry into it too. I pretended to fake discover the Room Of Requirement (which I did by pacing in front of Harry and Hermione on the seventh floor, hoping for a class room while they stared at me bewildered, until a door suddenly popped up) and I learned that I was really good at teaching.

It felt good to help them with spells, and with repeated practice, they were already getting better. Soon they'd probably surpass me, or equal me at least, and things would go back to normal, the way they were supposed to be. I didn't want Harry to be forsaken like he was the last time, I wanted him to be able to meet Voldemort (I had finally managed to get over the hump and say his name) on an equal ground, because there was no way for me to know the power Voldemort himself knew not.

The days soon melded into each other again, and time flew. Harry and Hermione had marked improvement in Transfiguration, they seemed to get everything almost as soon as I had (I had to try and hold back a little and make it look like I tried at least five or six times before getting it), meanwhile I had taken some alone time and started working on conjuration, which hadn't been the strongest thing in school for me.

It began snowing, and Christmas was going to come upon us all soon. Mom had already asked me if Harry was going to get something for Christmas, and I wrote back telling her that he wasn't, which meant he was going to get a nice Weasley sweater (something I had come to miss dearly)

A day before the Christmas break had started, Hermione had come up to me. The snooping around and badgering Hagrid meant that he had, on due time dropped the name of Nicolas Flamel, and Harry swore he knew that from somewhere. I knew where he'd seen it, the chocolate card, his first ever. It was weird that it was the same for me too, Dumbledore was my first ever Chocolate Frog card too.

"Ron, as you already know, I'm leaving for Christmas break and-"

"-I need you to work and find out who Nicholas Flamel is" I finished her sentence for her, and she blushed.

"Yes" she said, apparently too embarrassed to say anything else.

"Hold up" I told her, I dug around in my pockets and pulled out a box of Sugar Quills.

"This is an early Christmas present, I think you'll like them" I told her. She thanked me profusely and told me that she was going to make sure I got my present on Christmas.

"Ron, I'm going to miss you, and Harry" she said.

"We're going to miss you too, come back soon alright?" I told her before hugging her. She then went off to say her good byes to Harry.

The break began, and the school emptied, which meant it was time for me to get this done. I had managed to put Scabbers to sleep, and then had cast a nice 'Muffiato' in my coat to make sure that he wouldn't hear a thing if he woke up, and then made my way to McGonagall's office.

"Good evening Professor" I told her as I entered her office. She smiled at me politely and wished me back.

"So Mr Weasley, is there anything very important that you wanted to talk to me about?" she asked me.

"Well" I began, lying. "I wanted to try to be an animagus"" I told her, she raised her eyebrows at that statement.

"Mr Weasley, while I think you are a very talented wizard at the art of Transfiguration, this doesn't seem to be the time for you to start training to be an Animagus, most people start in their NEWT years" she told me.

"Yes Professor, I am aware of that, but I did a lot of research and I came up with this Anti-Animagus potion" I told her, pulling out a flask of blue liquid. She stared at it in wonderment.

"Mr Weasley" I swore she was gushing. "This potion is very much above your level, how did you make this?" she asked me.

"Well, I don't know if I have, but I wanted to test it, and I didn't want to be unsupervised while doing so" I told her.

McGonagall gave me a small smile of approval. "That was the right thing to do Mr Weasley, so let's hear it then, what are you going to do now?" she asked me.

"Well" I said, pulling Scabbers out, my heart thumping. He was still asleep and McGonagall watched with raised eyebrows. "The book said that using it on a non-animagus would have no effect what-so-ever, and the potion should turn green as it fell to the floor" I told her. That wasn't exactly true, but I had managed to brew it in a way that seemed to have a side-effect of turning green when I tried it on the owls of the school.

"So this is Scabbers, my rat, a non-animagus" I told her as I held the vial above the rat.

Time seemed to slow down as I poured the drops on him, and then, right there in front of me, Pettigrew changed. The form of a rat slowly expanded, before becoming a very mousy, Peter Pettigrew.

A Pettigrew that was awake.

"Pettigrew?" McGongall was too shocked to do anything, but apparently my sleep drops had failed, and he had heard at least some of what I had said to McGonagall.

"Stupefy" I shouted, which was the wrong reaction, I was supposed to look shocked. And before Pettigrew could do anything, he was stunned.

"Weasley" McGonagall said to me, stunned, I wondered if I had hit her with the spell.

-x-

I found myself in Dumbledore's office, along with the still stunned Peter Pettigrew, who was now bound in ropes and a stunned locking McGonagall, who couldn't believe what was happening today. Dumbledore didn't look too bothered with it, in fact he seemed like he had always seemed, cool, calm and collected. It was incredible, and yet at the same time, I had given it away, I had been too prepared for someone who was going to discover that his rat had been an animagus all along, and McGonagall was on to me, as was Dumbledore.

I had lost my secret.

"This" Dumbledore said, breaking the silence in the room. "This is certainly a very interesting Christmas"

"You can say that again" I muttered.

"You knew that the rat was an animagus?" Dumbledore asked me sharply, he was in interrogation mode, it wasn't something I was used to from him, he had always been the slightly crackpot old professor that was kind and fair with everyone, this was the man who had fought Gridenwald, the only person Voldemort had feared.

"Yes" I told him. "And before I say anything else, I need you to swear a magical oath that without my permission, what I say next won't be repeated in front of anyone" my voice had a lot of confidence.

"Both of you" I said, looking at the still shocked McGonagall.

"Mr Weasley" Dumbledore began, there was a hint of warning in his voice. "You shouldn't be making such demands"

"I'll swear one too" I told him. "What I'm going to say to you is going to be true, all of it. I'm going to share some memories, something that hasn't been modified at all, something that I am willing to back, with Veritaserum" I told him.

Dumbledore stared at me, wondering if I was serious. He didn't have to, my face seemed to give away how serious I was.

"Fine then" he said to me. "We'll swear the oaths, but after this Ronald, you are going to tell us everything, is that clear?" he asked me. I nodded.

We swore oaths, a magical oath is slightly less punishing than an unbreakable vow, violating the oath meant a loss of the magic of a person, till he was forgiven by the other oath taker. Pettigrew just lay there, bound in ropes as we swore oaths.

"Who are you?" was the first question he asked me.

"Ronald Billius Weasley" I told him. "Sixth child of Arthur and Molly Weasley"

McGonagall had finally come around from being shocked, and now looked positively pissed off.

"How do you know that your rat was actually Peter Pettigrew in disguise?" she asked me, rage in her voice. I wasn't sure if it was directed at me.

"That's simple, this has happened before, except it was in different circumstances"

"What does that mean?" she asked me.

"It means I've come back in time, I was seventeen when I died for the first time, and I came back in time, I don't know how it happened, but it seems like I can't shake it off. I've tried killing myself, only to keep going back in time, to the day I first started school" I told them.

There was a gasp from McGonagall, Dumbledore remained impassive.

"I still have my magic" I told her, trying to relieve the tension, and failing at it, she was still angry.

"I need you to show me what happened, can you do that?" Dumbledore asked me. I nodded before extracting the memory of the worst day of my life, all of it, raw, unedited, if I was telling them everything, I was going to have to do it with brutal honesty. I showed them my first death, and then my next two ones, and then my decision to do things in a better way this time.

I waited, keeping watch over Pettigrew as they went into the Pensieve, and when they came out, Dumbledore looked distressed, it had finally gotten to him and the facade of remaining calm had broken. McGonagall looked like she wanted to murder someone.

"Ron" Dumbledore said to me softly. "What happened to the world, why were the three of you in the tent?" he asked me.

"You died" I told him, and that was all I needed to say, because Dumbledore and McGonagall both seemed to understand just what that meant.

"Tom came back didn't he?" Dumbledore asked me. I nodded.

"Yes, Voldemort did indeed come back, in our fourth year" I told him. "And yes, he does have ugh-things" I said, not wanting to reveal horcruxes "They are something we need to get rid of, as soon as we can" I told him.

"How?" he asked me. "How did he kill me?"

"He didn't" I told him. "Are you sure you want to know Professor?" I asked him. "Because I'm afraid that the timeline would get too meddled"

"The timeline is already meddled with Ron, I don't think the old one even exists anymore" he told me.

"What is that supposed to mean?" I asked him.

"From what little humans have figured out about time, the only thing that is certain is that it is cruel, and the world you were in, it's gone, you're in another world now, and that's how it is going to be"

"What do you mean the other world is gone?" I asked him, panic in my voice.

"I understand your panic Ron" Dumbledore told me softly. "But I think that old world has been ripped apart, and it makes sense now"

"What makes sense?" I asked him. "What are you talking about?"

"Albus, surely you don't mean the prophecy, is he the one?" McGonagall asked him. Albus nodded.

"What prophecy?" I was almost shouting now. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Watch" Dumbledore told me as he tapped the Pensieve on his table, and an image rose from it. It was Sybill Trelawney.

Harry had told me about the prophecy, the exact wordings of it, but I had never seen a prophecy being made, and I knew what was coming as Trelawney began speaking.

_'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... helped by the agent of fate and time itself...setting right things that went wrong...and the Dark Lord will mark The One as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies...helped by the agent of fate and time itself...'_

I stared as the figure went right back into her Pensieve.

"I suppose she wasn't a fraud then" I remarked, no one in the room felt too eager to laugh at my joke.

"She wasn't" Dumbledore told me. "But you seem to understand what is going on don't you, you were aware of the prophecy in the other world I suppose?"

"Yes, there was no 'agent of time and fate' bullshit in the last one"

For some reason, both the Professors weren't too eager to chide me for bad language.

"So basically, I'll keep coming back, time and fate will keep sending me back till I make things right?" I asked Dumbledore, who nodded.

If being 'The Chosen One' was bad enough, I wondered just how much responsibility 'The Agent Of Time And Fate' was going to mean.

"I don't know why it was Ron" Dumbledore told me. "There is no explanation, but something happened, that wasn't supposed to happen, and you were chosen as the agent of time, the one who was going to help, and till the Dark Lord is not defeated, you are going to keep reliving this life"

"Great" I said to him, not feeling great at all, this was more responsibility than what I was supposed to get.

"There might be a reason Ron, you've always been overshadowed haven't you?" he asked me. It was amazing how insightful he was, but then again, he was the greatest wizard to ever live.

"Yeah" I told him.

"Then if time and fate were real people, they chose correctly. You've been given a chance, to do the right thing, to learn lessons that need to be learnt, but then again, the machinations of time and fate are beyond the grasp of mere men like you and I" he told me.

I didn't say anything, choosing to stay silent instead.

"So now what?" I asked him.

"Change things Ron, set them right. Do it properly, the way it would be in a perfect world" he told me.

"It's not perfect, a lot has already happened" I told him.

"Then make sure nothing too bad happens" he told me, with a twinkle in his voice.

"Yeah, that's going to be easy" I told him.

"It isn't" Dumbledore told me. "But you should take this like a game of chess, I'm told that you are very good at that"

I nodded.

"Then make sure that every piece you move, moves with purpose, and make sure that no one finds out, discretion is important" he continued.

"Great, what are you going to do about him?" I asked, looking at the prone form of Pettigrew.

"Interrogate him, him being alive means that there is going to be a chance that Sirius Black is innocent, and he might be really pleased to get out, and meet his godson, but I bet you already knew all that"

"Yeah, and what do I tell Harry?" I asked him. "I've been gone for hours now, he's gonna be looking for me"

"Do what you do best Ron, and lie" Dumbledore told me, grinning. I grinned back. McGonagall still looked pissed.

"So, uh, he escaped last time" I said as I got up. "Make sure that doesn't happen this time" I told him.

"Indeed" Dumbledore told me. "Now Minerva, I think you should take Ronald here back to his dorm" he told her, and McGonagall stood up too, and we left the office.

"It's not fair what happened to you Weasley" she told me as we walked back to the Gryffindor dormitories. "But you seem like someone who can make something of a bad situation, someone who can improvise, and I must say that no matter what happens, don't regret it too much, focus on fixing it" she told me.

"Thanks Professor. Coming from you, that means a lot" I told her. She gave me another smile, she really was a softie inside.

"Run along now Weasley" she said to me as the door to the dorm opened. "And make it a very good lie, alright?"

I nodded, and watched as McGonagall hurried away.

"Where the heck were you?" a very worried looking Percy asked me, Harry was right behind him, looking relieved that I had come back.

"Yes Ron, we sent Fred and George to look everywhere for you" Harry added.

'Make it a good lie' I chanted in my head, as I gulped and cleared my throat. "Well guys, today has been a very interesting day"

* * *

><p><strong>So that was end scene. I had Ron tell Dumbledore and McGonagall, because someone has to know otherwise nothing would happen. Now I know there were better ways I could do this, but this was what came to me first, and I had it written down. I guess I could have been more erudite in the way I had it all revealed, but you guys need to learn some things for yourself.<strong>

**Now you might have concerns as to how Ron will do stuff from here on out, but rest assured. Ron realizes that it's important for Harry to have the experiences that he has had, so while there are going to be changes, the core of the cannon stays the same. Ron won't become some Godlike figure and will stay in the shadows, like the king on the chess board, limited by what he can do, but someone that the entire game revolves around.**

**To all the Ron haters, don't bother. I don't answer to you, and yes, Ron/Hermione and Harry/Ginny are confirmed pairings as of this point, but there's still the matter of other pairings.**

**A chess game is full of necessary sacrifices, so the world Ron makes will be a different one, some pieces might be lost, it's not going to go all according to plan, but that is quite a ways away.**

**Suggest other pairings you'd like to see, particularly for Sirius and other students, and I might write them.**

**Please review this story, as it will give me the added impetus to write. I know it's a pain to review, but just take one minute of the fifteen you've spent reading this chapter and leave a review. I know I'm begging for it, but the feeling of getting a review of a latest chapter, and wondering how it came off is one of the greatest things for me, so please, do review.**


	6. Blimey Charley!

**I scoured the internet for well written fanfiction which treat Ron right, and there weren't very many of those, so I'm writing this.**

**I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER**

* * *

><p>Harry, Fred, George and Percy stared at me with incredulous looks on their faces. I had told them the story, with some slight modifications, instead of telling them about making a potion that was of a much higher level than I was supposed to be at, I told them that I was curious about becoming an Animagus and that I had asked if there was a way to tell if someone was one, and that McGonagall had tried it on Scabbers.<p>

I continued staring at them, while they had their mouths open in shock.

"So you're telling us that Scabbers was not a rat?" Fred began.

"But just someone who the world thought was dead in disguise?" George finished.

"Don't do that Gred and Forge thing again please" I told them. "I'm not in the mood for it"

"Blimey Charley" Fred and George said in unison and I couldn't help but chuckle at that. The two of them always were funny, an their joke lightened the mood a little as Harry grinned too, however Percy wasn't happy, and I knew why. It was his rat until Hermes was given to him for becoming a prefect.

"What's the matter Perce?" I asked him. I hadn't been too fond of Percy in the previous world, or whatever it was that had happened, but I understood it much later on. Percy felt like an outsider in his own family, felt like he didn't belong. I had always felt like I shouldn't belong, and that made us much more similar to each other than people would think.

"It's nothing" Percy said, absently as he stared at Fred and George animatedly discuss what had happened with Harry, telling him stories about Sirius Black, who was accused of murdering twelve muggles and killing Peter Pettigrew and what this could mean for Sirius. Of course, they didn't know that Sirius was Harry's godfather, but they were going to find out in due time.

"It's not nothing, you had Scabbers too didn't you?" I asked him, and Percy looked taken aback by the perceptiveness I seemed to display.

"I can't believe I never noticed, he had a toe missing too, and that was all that was found of Peter Pettigrew" he told me, the shock in his voice apparent.

"It's not your fault Perce" Fred piped in. "You couldn't have known what Pettigrew was pulling, so don't blame yourself"

I felt a warm feeling rush into my heart when I heard Fred defend Percy, like the entire family was whole again, and even though a lot of things that had happened didn't happen yet, it still felt pretty damn great.

In that moment I felt like I knew why I was doing this. Yes, I was sent back in time, and yes there were people who wielded more influence than I ever could. Harry or Hermione back in time could have achieved a lot more than I could, just by the virtue of being more talented, but I had to make with what I'd been given. that was always the way it had been in the other life, and I'd be dammed if I wasn't going to do my very best, because there were things worth fighting for in the new world.

George and Harry jumped in, assuring Percy that they didn't blame him for whatever had happened to Scabbers, and Percy finally smiled.

"Cheer up" I told them. "It's Christmas tomorrow, and we're going to have a lot of fun"

"It has indeed been past midnight" Percy said, the pompous tone coming back on. "I believe you should all trot off to bed" he told them. Fred and George grumbled about how it was better if Percy was moping while my sensitive mind was far too busy digesting information to care about whatever was happening.

"So you reckon Black is going to be free now?" Harry asked me after we had changed and were getting ready to sleep.

"Yeah, according to Dumbledore he wasn't even given a trial, so with the new trial, he probably will be free" I told him.

"It's not fair is it?" Harry asked me. "How they kept a man, who could possibly innocent, in jail for so long"

I shook my head to indicate a no, even though it was too dark for him to see any of it. "No it's not fair, but nothing much is fair is it mate?" I asked him.

**SIRIUS BLACK INNOCENT**

_Startling revelations took place last night, as Peter Pettigrew, long believed to be killed by Sirius Black along with twelve Muggles was found alive, disguised as a rat animagus. _

_"Yes, it is true" Albus Dumbledore, the Headmaster Of Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry told the Prophet. "He was disguised as a pet rat for a student, who I shall not name out of consideration for his family. It gave him quite a shock to find out that his beloved pet rat was actually someone who was long since considered dead"_

_Peter Pettigrew was awarded the Order Of Merlin, Second Class, posthumously for bravely confronting Sirius Black. Eye witnesses of the time remember Peter and Sirius having a heated conversation before an explosion took place, taking the lives of twelve muggles, and Peter Pettigrew. The only sign of Pettigrew was his finger, and Sirius Black just stood there, laughing as he was apprehended. _

_Does his being alive mean that Sirius Black could possibly be innocent of all the crimes he has committed? Cornelius Fudge, the esteemed minister of magic had this to say: "Shocking business this, what Pettigrew did, disguising himself as a rat and planting himself in a wizarding family to keep up with the news of our world. Sirius Black is going to be getting a trial in light of all the evidence that has surfaced, and there might be a very good chance that he could be innocent of any wrong doing"_

_This does raise more questions on how the Ministry let Sirius Black go to Azkaban without as much as a trial._

_"I've always known that there has to be more to the story" Augusta Longbottom, another esteemed witch who keeps in close contact with Albus Dumbledore told us. "Sirius never seemed like the type to turn dark, and if he is innocent, it's better to get justice now rather than never get it at all"_

_Lucius Malfoy, a regular contributor to the ministry in terms of funding and other support was also reached for comment, but told us that he wasn't made aware of the information until a lot of the interrogation had already been done. He expressed pleasure that a possibly innocent party was going to get a reprieve._

_There are a lot of questions that are now raised in light of this shocking new discovery, including the state of mind of one Harry Potter. A source that requested we keep them anonymous told us this: "James Potter, Harry's father and Sirius were like two peas in a pod, very close, almost like brothers, in fact I'm pretty sure that Sirius is Harry's legal godfather, and I'm sure Harry would be happy to know that he still has a semblance of a family left"_

_Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived who has just started attending Hogwarts this year, could not be reached for comment._

_There will be more on this story, as it develops._

_For a full profile on Sirius Black, turn to page 6._

_For articles published at the time of Black's arrest, turn to page 7._

_For knowledge on the Boy-Who-Lived, turn to page 8._

I sighed as I folded the newspaper and began buttering my toast. The few people that had stayed back had began buzzing as soon as they had read it. Even when it didn't directly concern Harry, the Prophet found some way of making things about him. I had to give the credit for being persistent.

"News spreads fast eh?" Fred asked everyone on the table, and they all silently nodded.

"I wonder what Hermione is going to think of this" Harry said, to no one in particular. "I don't know how I'm supposed to react to this, until today morning, I had no idea that Sirius Black was my Godfather"

"Well Harry" a new voice that I instantly recognized called out from behind us. Harry turned back to see Albus Dumbledore standing there, with a twinkle in his voice. "I'm sure you are going to find out more soon, and it's looking positive that Sirius Black will be declared innocent of any wrong doing" he continued.

"I still can't believe he was with us for all these years" Percy said to Dumbledore. "I should have seen it"

"I'm afraid Mr Weasley, that Pettigrew was far too smart for you to catch, you are yet young, and Pettigrew is well known for being as sneaky as his animagus form" he told everyone.

"What about Mum and Dad?" I asked Dumbledore, surely they were going to be interrogated too, it was where Pettigrew had stayed all this while after all.

"Arthur and Molly have both sworn the magical oath that they were unaware of Pettigrew being there in disguise, apart from being asked to act as witnesses at the trial, they do not have anything to do with this at all"

I couldn't help but laugh at the seriousness of the situation.

"Unfortunately" Dumbledore continued. "They have had to come back for a brief while, as they were summoned by the Minister himself, who is eager to correct the wrongs of his predecessor"

"They were mortified that a potential death eater has been spending all this time with their children. Molly looked downright outraged that Peter could do something like this" he said. That was an appropriate 'Mum' reaction.

This was on par with Fudge, he was a great politician who said the right things and had proven in the other world that he was going to deny the obvious if it meant that it kept him in power.

"But you shouldn't fret too much" Dumbledore continued, the twinkle still hadn't left his face. "This is a wonderful time of the year after all, and there is Christmas tomorrow, I hope that someone finally sends me a pair of nice socks" he said to all of us before he left, chuckling as he walked to the teacher's table.

"He's a loon isn't he?" I asked everyone around us, which made Fred, George and Harry choke on their food in laughter, while Percy looked scandalized that I had insulted the headmaster.

Even as Fred and George continued their snowball fight, and even as Harry and I trudged to the library, hoping to find information on Nicolas Flamel (information I already knew) I couldn't help but think of how this was going to go now. I felt like a load had been taken of my chest, and that I wouldn't have to do things alone anymore, even if Dumbledore and McGonagall couldn't get involved personally. If I wanted to, I could easily go down there right now, or tell Dumbledore to hide the stone in a place that wasn't the mirror, but that would make things unpredictable, and I figured that if I was going to be changing time, it'd be good to know what to change.

The other reason was Harry. He was the Chosen One, as much as he hated the nickname in the other world. He had grown up into a very brave wizard, and I was sure that everything he went through during his years at Hogwarts helped make him who he is, and he needed to have these experiences again, learn things for himself. I hated manipulating him, and I realized just how similar Dumbledore's position was to mine. Having knowledge of things that could happen was a real bitch apparently.

I continued to do a halfhearted job of looking for Nicolas Flamel, while Harry seemed like a man possessed. It seemed like he wanted to desperately know just who Flamel was. I silently wondered which parent he got that personality from.

But this was not even the worst meeting I was looking forward to, that was Albus Dumbledore who had decided to call me and find out more things about what was in the alternate future that required me to go with Harry and Hermione on a journey. I had that to look forward to tonight.

"This makes no sense" Harry said throwing his hands up in frustration. "I know I've seen Nicolas Flamel's name somewhere, but I have no idea where it is"

I was starting to get tired of his persistent digging, and wondering if I would be right there digging with him if I hadn't known who Flamel was, but I was determined to bide my time and play it out the way it went the last time because I knew what was coming that way.

"You shouldn't shout in the library even if it's Christmas Harry" I told him. "Madam Pince is a right bi-" before I could finish the sentence, Madam Pince herself had come to us, hearing the voice that Harry had made whist looking around.

"If you can't keep quiet in the library, get out" she told both of us with a comically stern expression on her face.

Later in the night, I made an appropriate excuse and made my way to Dumbledore's office, filled with trepidation about what was going to be asked of me once I got there and if I was going to be able to answer truthfully, and properly.

"Welcome Ron" Dumbledore said with a twinkle in his eye. "Would you like a lemon drop?" he asked me. I shook my head.

"No one ever takes me up on these lemon drops" Dumbledore said to me, smiling.

We stared at each other for about a minute.

"Fine" I grumbled. "Give me a lemon drop"

"Fantastic Ron" Dumbledore said, his voice filled with mirth as his hand reached in the jar and pulled out a lemon drop, I held mine out and he dropped it in my palm. I grimaced as I swallowed the drop, it had a sour taste, but it wasn't really that bad.

"Not that bad is it?" he asked me.

"No" I said, not lying at all. It was actually really good, almost like it had grown on me, I was almost tempted to take another lemon drop from the jar.

"Now that your refreshments are taken care of" Dumbledore said, having gone back to being serious now. "You need to tell me about the plans Voldemort has for Harry, so we can make plans for Harry too"

I stared at Dumbledore when he said that. Harry had never really liked it when his life was planned for him, and I hadn't liked it much either.

"You are going to plan Harry's life for him?" I asked him incredulously.

"I don't mean to control his life Ron, but you have to know that his safety is the number one priority here"

"Harry wouldn't like that" I responded bitterly. "He won't like his life being given extra importance, and now that I'm here, I can take care of him just fine, in a future that I'm comfortable with, as long as I know what's coming"

"Ron" Dumbledore said sounding tired, he sounded tired for the first time in all the time I'd heard him speak, or be spoken to. "You've changed the future already, even as we speak Peter Pettigrew has been interrogated and the truth is out. Sirius Black is going to be freed, something that you say happened later in your life, which means that the future as you know it, has already been changed"

He was right, and suddenly this business did not seem like a good idea at all, but then I closed my eyes and thought about it, with Sirius innocent, he wouldn't have to hide, and Harry would have a better life. I was determined to give that to him no matter what.

"I might have changed the future, but this is not a significant change. In fact, I think Peter is going to escape" I told Dumbledore, who looked slightly surprised.

"You seem sure of that" Dumbledore remarked.

"Yeah" I said to him. "The agent of time and fate, that's what the prophecy said right?"

Dumbledore nodded.

"Well, I think that time and fate are interrelated. I think that while I can move things forward in time, some other things are just inevitable. And while there is no Voldemort now, it's inevitable that he is going to come back, and I think Peter is the one who is going to bring him back, like he did the last time" I told Dumbledore, who began smiling.

"Were you credited for being perceptive in the future?" Dumbledore asked me.

"Not as much as I'd like" I said darkly. "But now's not the time for all of that, there are some things I can tell you that I want to change"

"How do they relate to Harry, Ron?"

"Well Professor, have you heard of a horcrux?"

As soon as I said that, I could have sworn I saw Dumbledore slump a little, even after all these years of living a long and healthy life, there were things that surprised the old man, and this was one of them.

"No" he said, his voice barely a whisper and his face getting paler as time went on.

"Yes" I said simply, I had no idea why this affected him as much as it was, after everything that he had seen Voldemort do, surely this couldn't surprise him.

"He made a horcrux?" Dumbledore asked me, he was having trouble speaking, but I just laughed.

I've laughed before, there are laughs of innocence, there is an angry laugh that older Hermione does that was so sexy, then there's the dry laugh that I have perfected, and then there is a bitter laugh. This time, I was laughing bitterly.

"Do you find this funny?" Dumbledore asked me dangerously. "He was my student, do you not think that I was responsible for what happened to him?"

Harry had told me about the memory where Dumbledore had met Voldemort for the first time, and I remembered that vividly.

"Think back to when you first met him Professor" I told him. "You've always known, you've always sensed it about him"

Dumbledore closed his eyes, but I wasn't done with saying more. I felt the anger I had felt that day in the tent, the day I left them. I was angry, at Dumbledore for leaving us without a plan, for being responsible for making me come back, even if it was indirectly. I'd have to wait again, for all the good things, and even if I was changing things for the better, there were things that were inevitable, that were going to happen no matter how hard I tried to stop them. I was stuck, the agent of time and fate itself, lost in the essence of time.

"You're idolized the world over Dumbledore" I told him, switching to his last name, it didn't seem to bother him. "People put you on a pedestal, but I know that you know that you've made more mistakes than just that. I've always sensed that about you, even if I've never said a word to anyone"

"What would you do?" he asked me quietly. "Ronald, if you were in my place, having arrived to the orphanage, and watch the gleam in his eyes when he realized that he could use his magic to hurt people, what would you do?"

I didn't know the answer to that. I was raised with the idea that children are innocent, and that you need to be careful raising them. But no one had raised Voldemort, he grew up in an orphanage. It was scary how similar Harry and Voldemort were, similar blood status, both grew up without parents to raise them and love them. One of them turned dark, and inadvertently he turned Harry the other way.

"You don't know do you?" Dumbledore asked me. "I don't either, to this day, I ask myself the same question"

He finally opened his eyes, and there were tears in them. I'd like to remember this as the day I made Albus fucking Dumbledore cry, but I wasn't going to gloat about that.

"Lemon drops?" I asked him.

He let out a throaty chuckle.

"You're going to need it man" I told him. "I haven't even gotten to the worst of it yet"

"What could be worse than a horcrux?"

"Six of them"

Dumbledore looked like he was being choked to death, I wanted to laugh again.

"That's why I was laughing by the way, because I imagined you reacting to this very revelation"

"Six?" he asked me, with fear in his voice.

"Yeah. Slytherin's locket. Hufflepuff's cup, something of Ravenclaw. His diary, a ring that belonged to his family and a snake. Nagini, I think she hasn't been made yet" I told him.

"You know what these objects are, you know where they are?" he asked me.

"No, not all of them. That's what we were doing you know, in the tent, looking to destroy the rest of them"

"I need time to process this information" he told me, which was basically his way of asking me to bugger off.

"You need more than that, you need to find these horcruxes" I told him. "And call me when you do, you're not doing this alone"

-x-

I wanted nothing more than to wake up to a lazy Christmas morning after that intense conversation with Dumbledore, but alas, Fred and George were too excited as they burst into our dorm, wearing those familiar Weasley Jumpers with the F and the G on them.

"Merry Christmas" they told me, I awkwardly grumbled it right back at them. They smirked at seeing my surly mood before proceeding to tickle Harry awake, I wondered if that is what they had done the last time around too.

"Presents downstairs, even Percy the Prat Prefect is waiting" they both chorused together before shooting right back out of the room, their feet making a lot of noise as they thundered downstairs.

As we got ready, I couldn't help but see that Harry looked really glum, and I was hit with that familiar feeling of guilt that I had been feeling a lot since I had come back in time. I had always wondered if Harry wanted the fame he so often got, and today it was even clearer that if he could give it all up for a family, he would. I felt like the biggest ponce in the world for ever being jealous of his wealth and his fame, I'd never considered that he was going to be jealous of me for some things too.

But I was the agent of fate and time wasn't I, which meant that I could give Harry a semblance of what he so desired, something that was natural to me the last time.

"Are you worried about not getting presents?" I asked him. He looked at me with a sad expression on his face.

"Yeah" he said slowly. "I don't think Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon-"

"Fuck those guys" I told him and he looked at me in alarm, which made me want to laugh again. "Harry, you're my best mate, you'll be my best mate till the day we die, and you're always going to be part of my family, and you're always going to get a present from me and the rest of my family" I told him.

He looked like he was going to cry when I said that, I might have overdone it in the sappiness department.

"Come on" I told my future brother in all but blood. "Let's see what our family has given us" I said, emphasizing the 'our'

They did not disappoint. I still got the Maroon Weasley jumper, some things even fate can't change I suppose. Harry got the green, nicer jumper and it didn't feel so bad this time, actually it felt better than last time. We also got some homemade fudge from mom. Bill had sent me some sort of weird device he found in Egypt, Charlie sent me a broom polishing kit. Ginny had helped make the fudge and sent me a charmed greeting card. Hermione sent me some chocolate frogs and a book on advanced transfiguration, with a note asking me to read the book whenever I get the urge to stuff myself on chocolate frogs.

I smiled at that.

We marveled at the invisibility cloak that Dumbledore had sent Harry for a while, tried it out, having fun hiding our hands and legs and head, just being general children, for the next few minutes.

By the time morning had passed, Harry was smiling too, proudly wearing the Weasley sweater, and I wanted to give him a hug, but I settled for a chocolate frog, and I knew what was going to happen before it even happened.

"Dumbledore" Harry exclaimed as he saw the card that had been behind the frog. "Dumbledore" he said waving it in my face and shooting off to his room.

"What the hell is he on about?" Fred asked George. "I have like ten Dumbledore's"

"Do you have an Agrippa, I need it for my-" I didn't hear the rest of the twins conversation as I dashed to the room too, I had to pretend to be really excited at this discovery after all.

"I knew it" he said as soon as I got to the room. "I knew I'd read it somewhere, look" he told me.

**ALBUS DUMBLEDORE**

**CURRENTLY HEADMASTER OF HOGWARTS**

_Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times, Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the Dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel. Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and ten-pin bowling._

"What in the name of Merlin is ten-pin bowling?" I asked Harry.

"Ron" Harry said. "Nicolas Flamel, see, he's an alchemist"

"Never heard of him, but I bet Hermione has heard of him, we should wait for her to come back" I tried waving Harry off.

Harry sighed and then grumbled and moaned, before eventually forgetting about it.

I went to Dumbledore's office later that night, but I was politely turned away by the gargoyles at the entrance, who told me that the man was away on business. I hoped he was attending to the business of finding the horcurxes because that was really, really important.

"Mr Weasley?" Professor McGonagall asked me as she came across me loitering on the seventh floor corridors. "Any reason for you to be wandering about?"

"Wanted to meet the headmaster" I told her. "Talk to him about something

"Is there anything I can help you with at all?" she asked me. I was merely glad to see that she wasn't pissed.

"Did he tell you, about yesterday's meeting. You weren't there"

"Albus tells me most things" she said shortly. "But he refused to discuss yesterday with me, said that it was sensitive information"

"It is" I told her. "Very sensitive indeed"

"The other day, you must have sensed some anger about me" McGonagall continued. "I know you were looking at me and getting slightly intimidated"

I wanted to snort when she said slightly, instead I let her continue.

"I was angry at Albus, for leaving some kids with the important responsibility, whatever it was that you were doing, all of you, it seemed important"

"Not some kids" I told her, slightly peeved that she had waved us off as mere kids. "We faced more than any kid should ever have to face, and I'm back in time to change most of the things that we could have avoided"

"The question is why do they happen at all?"

"It's war professor" I told her. "Shit happens"

"Swear again Weasley, and you'll be in detention, your real age not withstanding"

I shut up after that.

"I'm concerned Weasley, about things that Albus is doing now" she told me.

"You mean the Philosopher's Stone?" I asked her. Her eyes went wide in shock.

"Yeah, we knew last time too, and Harry actually got the stone too, saved it from Voldemort"

She flinched at the name, and I felt disdain, now I knew how Harry felt when I flinched at his name.

"He's not that scary Professor" I told her. "He can be defeated, Harry will take care of it all" I told her. "Including this stone situation, and I'm going to be there so you don't have to worry about a thing"

"Forgive me Weasley, if that does not give me any comfort whatsoever" she told me.

And with that the Christmas holidays came to a close. Harry did end up discovering the mirror of Erised and since Dumbledore wasn't there, it came to me to drag him away from there after telling him that it wasn't safe. Before I got him out of there I took one quick look at myself and felt warmth in my heart upon seeing the same thing I had seen last time. That still hadn't changed.

Hermione came back soon after the holidays were done and was shocked to hear about Scabbers, and Sirius. She was outraged that someone had been sent to prison without trial and talked about thinking of joining the ministry to make sure that justice was given to everyone.

"At least it's not spew" I said with relief in my voice, which confused Hermione a bit.

After asking me what I meant by Spew, and me denying that I said anything at all, we told Hermione about who he was, which lead to her racing to the library in excitement, leaving Harry and I with our eyes rolling.

"He's responsible for creating the Philosopher's Stone" she told us later. "It can produce the Elixir Of Life, which ensures continuous life to the person taking it. That is how he has lived 665 years now" she told us.

"Blimey" I said, pretending to be surprised. "You don't think Dumbledore is keeping something that precious at the school do you?" I asked them, thus inserting the thought in their mind. Harry and his overactive imagination meant that he was going to start blaming Snape, and that was going to come soon.

The world didn't sit still while we went on with our life. The trial for Peter Pettigrew pronounced him guilty and had him sentenced Azkaban for life. I was sure that he was going to escape, I just didn't know when that was going to happen, but I knew it was coming.

The trial for Sirius Black was slightly more expedited after that. He was rewarded a significant compensation by the ministry, with Cornelius Fudge talking about how he was eager to correct the mistakes his predecessor had made and he was granted a pardon. He was punished for not registering as an Animagus, but that punishment was deemed to have been served for the ten years he had been in Azkaban, and that meant that pretty soon, he was going to walk free.

This was the first major change I had made, and I couldn't help but smile when Harry was informed that Sirius was his Godfather, and he seemed to be in sane health, his time at Azkaban hadn't really affected him too badly, which could only be a good thing.

Remus Lupin had shown up soon after the trial according to Dumbledore, and had decided to take care of him, which could only be a good thing.

As we sat there eating our breakfast, the usual flurry of owls brought us our letter, including a very tiny little owl that seemed familiar.

'Pigwidgeon' I almost said out loud as the over enthusiastic owl came flapping about and dropped a letter in my lap. It didn't seem to move from it's position.

"What a cute owl" Hermione remarked as Lavender and Parvati agreed with her, while Harry tried peeking over my shoulder to see what letter I had received.

I was surprised when I saw that it was from Sirius.

_Dear Ron,_

_I don't know how to say this to you. Really, I don't, but thank you so much. Minnie and Dumbledore told me what happened that day and how you helped apprehend Pettigrew once he was discovered to be your rat. It sure helped save my life and get me out of prison, and it's all thanks to you, so I'll forever be in your debt._

_I also hear that you and Harry are best friends, which is nice. You might not know this but when he was born, I was named his godfather, and I look forward to the chance of getting to raise him the way James and Lily would have wanted him to be raised._

_I'm sorry this letter is brief, but I'm not exactly in the mental state to have long conversations right now, but I just wanted to thank you. _

_Yours Truly,_

_Sirius._

_PS: It's indirectly my fault that you have no pet, so keep the owl. He seems overenthusiastic and ready to please and will make a great messenger._

I smiled when I finished the letter, and gave it to Harry, who began reading it with excitement on his face.

"You're mine now" I said as the owl came fluttering onto my arms."I'm gonna call you Pigwidgeon" I told him. "Pig for short"

The owl hooted in excitement, I wondered if there was anything else he did apart from hooting in excitement.

"That's an interesting name" Hermione said slowly trailing off. I expect that it wasn't characteristic of me to call my owl 'Pig' but Ginny had named him the last time and the name seemed to stick for some reason.

I told Pig to go to the Owlery and settle down there, and he hooted and flew away.

I couldn't help but notice the forlorn expression on Harry's face as we rushed to Herbology class later that day, he had been surly since the letter had come for me, and his mood didn't seem like improving.

"Everything alright?" I asked him.

"No" he said to me shortly. "Everything is not alright. If he really is free, then why hasn't he sent me a message yet? He tells you that he's looking forward to meeting me, but he hasn't tried to contact me once" he told me.

"Why didn't you tell me when I asked you before?"

"I didn't want to tell you in front of Hermione, I mean she's great, but you understand these things better" I was touched by what he had said, and couldn't help but agree. Hermione was our best friend, but it wasn't the relationship Harry and I had. Arguments with Hermione were part of nature for me, but with Harry, our arguments were few, and awful whenever they happened. I doubted that either of us could survive without each other.

"There could be several reasons why he hasn't got in touch with you Harry, it's not that simple" I told him as we moved towards the Greenhouse. Hermione was probably already there, fuming that we were late to the class.

"Like what?" he asked me.

"Maybe, he's worried. He was in a prison where people have their happy memories sucked from them Harry, he's not going to be fit and dandy as soon as he gets out, he said as much in his letter right?"

"What if he's like Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon?" Harry asked me, and I stiffened. I had no idea how Harry was treated by his muggle relatives, the things I'd heard from him were never too positive and the one time I had shown up to his house in second year, he was imprisoned behind the walls of his very own home and we had to rescue him.

"From what I've heard of Sirius, he was your father's best friends. Your muggle relatives don't even understand magic" I told him. "It's gonna be fine mate, he's gonna send you a letter soon" I assured him, hoping that my own words were true and there weren't other reasons as to why Sirius hadn't been sending any letters to him.

That seemed to temporarily assuage Harry, but our troubles were not over yet. Apparently Malfoy had decided that he couldn't target me without retaliation, so he had taken to bullying Neville, and that angered me a lot. It didn't help that the Neville I knew and this Neville were wildly different, it wasn't until the fifth year that Neville became the brave and dependable guy I remembered from my previous life.

Hermione had taken to teaching Neville some self defense, while I wasn't sure if that was really going to help. I was thinking about permanently cursing Malfoy's legs off.

Problems increased when as per schedule, Harry heard Snape and Quirrel arguing over something and was convinced that Snape had been trying to steal the stone.

"I'm telling you" he told us. "He released a troll on Halloween to distract everyone, and tried to steal it then, but he was attacked by the cerebrus and got hurt. That's why he was walking with a limp the next day"

It didn't help that Dumbledore was still no where to be found, I saw him at the breakfast table, but I was not going to start talking about the sensitive subject of Horcuxes in front of everyone was I? He was gone for the rest of the day, and the schedule repeated itself every single day, he was no where to be found.

McGonagall herself did not know where the headmaster was off too, and the best I could do was hope that he was searching for the Horcrux. The days turned into weeks and time began flowing smoothly again. It was the first of February when Harry received the owl from Sirius, who in his letter apologized to him for not contacting him sooner, telling him that he was not in the right place and that he was ashamed at having let Harry down and getting caught, which was a very stupid thing to be ashamed about, he hadn't let Harry down, the wizarding world had let him down.

Hermione again expressed her outrage at the fact that a proper trial had not been given and that everyone deserved justice.

We continued our training in Transfiguration, and while Harry was fine at it, Hermione really excelled. It helped that I proved to be a surprisingly effective teacher, for someone as non academic as me, it was of the essence to simplify the concepts and understand them, which meant that I was in a better position to educate the less talented, and the supremely talented. I still wasn't willing to disclose that I might know NEWT level concepts and decided to not go beyond third year transfiguration yet.

My interest in Potions had also taken off, which was weird because never in a million years would I have thought that I was going to be interested in Potions, but I knew that Voldemort was going to be defeated, and I needed to plan for my future, so Potions seemed like an important subject to grasp. Snape remained puzzled at my good performance in class and seemed to watch me with extra cautious eyes, but never did he find anything that warranted detention.

Quidditch practice continued and the second match against Hufflepuff was soon approaching. I was determined to help Wood out and win him the Quidditch world cup again, but that depended on the stone and how things progressed with that.

It didn't help that just like last time, Snape was the referee again.

"Don't worry" I told him. "Catch the snitch as soon as you can" I told him.

'I have 10 Galleons riding on it' I said under my breath.

True to his word, Harry was able to catch the snitch within ten minutes, giving Gryffindor an emphatic win and netting me 50 more galleons, which was never a bad thing.

Fred and George had managed to get some Butterbeer and a wild party broke out in the common room later that evening, it was so festive that even Hermione decided to look up from her books and join in the fun, having pleasant conversations with the twins, Harry and Neville. I had seen this before and seemed distant from it all, I had other things to worry about.

"I'm gonna be back" I told him as I slipped out of the common room, deciding to see if Dumbledore had come back.

I didn't go far before flames erupted and from out of nowhere, Dumbledore's phoenix cried out, dropping a note in my hand.

_Meet me in the office now, if your friends ask, tell them that you have been given detention for pulling pranks on Draco Malfoy_

The note conveniently burned itself.

"Fucking great" I said, looking at the phoenix, which cried out again.

"Your owner is a barmy man" I told him. The phoenix cried out again, but I swore he was agreeing with me, and I smiled as it disappeared in a burst of flames. In that moment, I wished Pig was a phoenix.

"You're back" I told him as I entered the room and reached straight for his jar of lemon drops, and put my hand in them.

I looked at him and he had a twinkle in his eye. "Do you mind?" I asked him.

"This is the first time someone has asked for a lemon drop Ron" he told me. "I'm actually moved, I'll send you a jar"

"Good idea" I told him, pulling out two lemon drops and popping them in my mouth. I then sat down opposite to him as he watched me with an amused look on his face, his Phoenix was back on his perch, watching me with a keen look on his face.

"He likes you" Dumbledore told him, "Thinks that you are funny"

"Did you find anything about the Horcuxes?" I asked him. "Our conversation was abruptly cut off the last time and-"

"You just get straight to the point, don't you Ron?" he asked me.

"Before I tell you what you know, tell me if you destroyed any of his horcruxes"

I thought it was fair that he wanted to know, and that it could help him.

"Yeah, in the second year, his dairy I think. Harry stabbed it with a basilisk fang in the chamber of secrets and-" I stopped and looked at Dumbledore, who was bewildered at what he had heard.

"Long story, but in the tent we had deciphered that Gryffindor's sword" I said looking at it resting in a case just behind him "Which is goblin made had imbibed the properties of the Basilisk fang"

"Because that would strengthen the sword" Dumbledore said with a look of understanding on his face. "Do I have to ask if you've been to the Chamber Of Secrets?" Dumbledore asked me.

"I have, I think fiendfyre will do the trick too" I told him, and Dumbledore didn't look too keen on that.

"I have discovered the location of a horcrux Ron, a family ring that belonged to his ancestors"

"Yeah, I know, you destroyed that one, I don't know how but I think you did it with a sword"

"You said you wanted to come along with me, do you think you can handle it?" he asked me.

"Yes" I told him. "I am capable of handling it Professor, let's go destroy a bloody horcrux"

* * *

><p><strong>So I had written another 1,000 words but then crapped out and was out for almost 16 hours or something, I wonder what happened.<strong>

**Thanks for reviews of the story so far, and please keep reviewing this story as it will help me going. I'd appreciate it if I can get like ten reviews for this chapter, so please review and ask me any questions you have there.**


	7. Ron And Dumbledore

**I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER AND ANY RELATED CHARACTERS**

* * *

><p>I stared at the Gaunt shack, and couldn't help but laugh at it. The Weasley's had always been a poor family but Harry had once told me that the poverty of the Gaunts put everyone's to shame. They used to be a prestigious family, full of wealth, all squandered away by drunks.<p>

"Their pureblood pride got them nothing" I said bitterly, and I saw Dumbledore nod. Today he looked older, the twinkle in his eye was gone and replaced with something else. He had been like this when he had dueled Voldemort at the Department Of Mysteries, at least that's what Kingsley had told me. I was incapacitated because I wasn't thinking right.

"You're right Ron" Dumbledore told me. "No one knows, except you, me and him, that he was related to the Gaunts, and is half muggle. And if they do, he's done well to hide it"

"I don't think it would matter if people knew" I told him. He looked at me with his eyebrows raised.

"Voldemort is the most powerful piece on the chessboard. It doesn't matter what his origin is, he rules by fear. Even if people were to find out, his followers aren't going to leave him, because they fear him"

"Well said Ron, you are indeed insightful, but perhaps do you have any memory of this one?" he asked me. "This is the one I destroyed isn't it?"

"All I know is that you don't have to wear the ring, that's it. And that's why I'm here, to stop you from wearing the ring. It wouldn't do if you were to die earlier than usual"

"You place a very high value on my piece don't you?" Dumbledore asked me, continuing the chess metaphor. I just smirked. We moved towards the door, but before we could move any further, Dumbledore placed a hand on my shoulder.

"Wait" he said to me. "Do you sense it?"

"Sense what?" I asked him.

Dumbledore didn't say anything, except for cutting his palm open and moving on the door knob and letting the blood spill on it.

"You would think that he would teach the door to accept pure blood wouldn't you?" he asked me as the door opened and we walked in.

I had heard several times that Dumbledore's mum was a muggle born witch, but here was the configuration.

"That seems to be very common among all the greats" I told him. "Being half blood. He's half blood too isn't he?"

"Yes, Voldemort did terrible things, but there is no doubting that they were greatly terrible" he told me with mirth in his voice. "Be careful here, the whole place has several enchantments on it, and I do not like this one bit"

"How do you sense this?" I asked him.

"A bigger magical core, comes with the age, but the fact that your own core seems to be getting more development because of going back means that you might learn the skill too" he told me. "Now watch" he told me as he cleared the cobwebs, and made his way towards the center of the house.

"There is something here" he told me, pointing towards the floorboards.

"Yeah well if Harry told me correctly, then it won't be so straightforward so you need to watch out" I told him as Dumbledore carefully removed the floorboards.

As the last one came off, there it was, floating in the air, the ring that had caused him so much problem.

"Any curse on it?" I asked him impatiently.

Dumbledore shook his head.

"That's weird" I told him. "Why would there be curses on everything else except the horcrux, you'd think-" before I could finish the sentence I looked at Dumbledore's eye. He looked manic, like I had never seen him before.

"The stone" he said, his voice barely a whisper, and I watched as he picked up the ring and began to put it on his finger.

"What the fuck are you doing?" I shouted as I whipped my wand out and shot a Stunning Spell at him non-verbally, but the old wily bastard was far more wily than I gave him credit for, he effortlessly deflected my curse and then looked at me.

I had never seen Dumbledore snarl before, and he shot a golden light at me, it took all I had to dodge the spell. I watched as the spell hit a pillar behind me and the pillar turned into powder.

"I'm glad I'm not that pillar" I remarked just before jumping and dodging another golden light, another portion of the house was destroyed.

"What the fuck are you doing?" I asked him. "You're gonna kill me" I fired another Stunner at him, but he dodged that.

"WAKE THE FUCK UP" I shouted with all my power and shot the Reductor curse at him. He barely managed to get away as the part of the house the spell hit was turned into dust, and then he paused.

"Oh god" he said to me, barely audible.

"Oh my fucking God" I told him. "Why are you trying to put that on, it's exactly what I told you NOT to do" I told him. He looked at me with guilt on his face.

"Ron, I'm sorry, I-"

"Don't apologize now, take the fucking ring, store it in a box or whatever, I don't care, just take the fucking thing and let's go already" I told him.

-x-

Everything else happened in a daze, and I couldn't help but express my amazement that I had almost been turned into dust by Dumbledore. He had managed to contain the ring in some sort of field, that he promised to teach me in case it would come in handy and had proceeded to Apparate me to some sort of moor, where he had unleashed fiendfyre and I watched as the ring let out a piercing scream, and a part of Voldemort's soul was gone.

Dumbledore then contained the fire, which took longer than I thought it would for someone as talented as he was, and we had directly apparated back to Hogsmede, and from there we made our way back to the school, while I used a disillusionment charm and we made our way to his office.

It was almost three in the morning when we finally made it, and I was seated in the chair, comfortably drinking tea as he stared at the stone that was on the ring. He had taken care to not burn the ring too much, for fear of the stone getting destroyed, and I don't know how he did it, but it seemed intact.

"Do you see the symbol?" he asked me as he pushed the stone that was resting on the table towards me. I looked at it, and there was indeed a symbol on it, a straight line in a circle that was in a triangle. I couldn't help but feel like I had seen this symbol somewhere.

"You seemed awfully fond of that stone, considering that you've tried to murder me for it" I said in a raised voice.

He sighed. "You are not going to let that one go anytime soon are you?" he asked me.

"Nope" I said with a smug look on my face. I had no idea what had possessed him to attack me, but I knew it was because of that stone.

"This stone Ron, is the Resurrection stone" he told me.

The Resurrection Stone, now that I had heard of. It was from 'The Tale Of Three Brothers', a tale that my mother used to tell us all when we were kids, a parable that told us about the importance of humility, and the ability to accept when it was your time to move on. But that was a fairy tale.

"Pull my other leg too"

"Ron" he said to me with a grave look on his face. "Look at me, I'm serious"

It didn't take a legilmens to see that Dumbledore was being serious, there was no twinkle or mirth about him now. He was really being serious, and then it suddenly came to me.

"Babbity Rabbity" I said to him. He raised his eyebrows at me.

"I mean Tales Of Beedle The Bard" I told him. "You gave that book to Hermione, I mean you passed it on to her after you-"

There was a look of understanding on his face.

"You wanted Harry to have the ring didn't you?" I asked him. There was no change in his expression and I realized that this was a Dumbledore of the past, he hadn't probably made his plan yet.

"So they're real, all of them?" I asked him. He simply nodded.

I couldn't help but let out a low whistle, to have the most powerful wand in the world would be pretty neat.

"So where are the other two?" I asked him.

"In this school, all three of them. Very close to being united" he told me, and I paled.

"You own the wand" I said to him, almost as an accusation. He nodded, and pulled it out. Now I knew why the pillar had turned into rubble, it made perfect sense.

"That still leaves the cloak" And then that came to me, Harry's cloak. The note that had been left to him had told him the cloak had been in Dumbledore's possession when his father had died, also it didn't look like a new cloak, it was perfectly old. Invisibility Cloaks that old generally lost their charm and were useless cloaks, but Harry's cloak worked. I had used it myself after all.

"Harry's cloak" I told him, my mouth was almost open. He nodded again, and in that meant I was tempted to get the cloak from him, to become the mythical master of death, but it was a fleeting thought, replaced by dread.

"If anyone ever finds out" I began.

"No one will find out" Dumbledore told me. "Ron, you can not tell anyone this. No one is going to find this out, do you hear me?" he asked me.

I nodded.

"Gellert and I, we looked everywhere, we dreamed of uniting these three, and today, it's possible, and I don't want it anymore" he told me, he was on the verge of crying.

"You looked for these things?" I asked him incredulously. The name Gellert seemed very familiar too.

"Many moons ago" he told me. "When I was a foolish youngster, I learned my lesson Ron, and today you helped solidify the lesson. Everything I think about myself is right" he told me, his voice heavy with regret.

I was almost worried about him now, he was on the verge of tears, and then he began sobbing. I didn't really know what to do, whether to comfort him or wait for him to stop, so I decided on the former.

"Professor" I told him as I got up and moved towards him, awkwardly patting him on the shoulder. I glanced back at the clock and it was now fifteen minutes past three, I had no idea how the time had passed that quickly.

"Thank you Ron" he said to me after a minute, taking a handkerchief and wiping his face with it. "That must be tough to watch, an old man cry"

He was right, I had never seen anyone old cry. Dumbledore had never cried in my previous life and my Dad looked like he could cry when he had that fight with Percy, but it never went beyond that. Sobbing was for children, not for old men.

"Wait a minute" I said to him as it came to me. Gellert was "Gellert Gridenwald? The guy you defeated?"

Dumbledore nodded.

"We were fools" he told me. "We dreamed of being the masters of death, immortal, we dreamed of ruling the entire world, overthrowing the Statue Of Secrecy and ushering in an era of peace, fools, maybe I knew"

"Knew what?" I asked him.

"I knew that it wasn't right, deep down, but you have to understand Ron, I loved him" he told me.

If it was possible for my eyeballs to pop themselves out of their socket and roll on the floor, it would happen right at that moment. I just stared at him googly eyed.

"Is it that surprising that I was in love with a man?" he asked me. I didn't know what to say, but suddenly it made sense. He was awfully old, wore weird clothes and had never taken a wife.

"You're-" I began. "You're-"

"Yes" he said to me shortly. "I was in love with him Ron"

I was moved that he chose to share something like this with me.

"Thanks for telling me that, it means something to me, you know" I told him.

"I know" he said simply.

"So you were in love with him, and went along with his plan?" I asked him.

"Something about him, perhaps my love for him made me buy into his plan Ron, but that changed when Ariana died"

"Ariana?" I asked him.

"My sister. It's a long story I don't want to start telling you, I'm afraid if it'll make you think any lesser of me"

I looked at him, and suddenly I saw him as myself, a man filled with regret, and a man who didn't even get the chance to fix it, the chance I was getting, the chance he never got, in that moment I understood him a lot better.

"Listen" I told him. "You told us nothing, left us with nothing. We spent months in a house, with an uncooperative elf, to stage a break in at the fucking ministry" I told him, almost shouting. The portraits of the headmasters had woken up, or stopped pretending to be asleep.

"We were hungry, we had a locket that made us think negative thoughts. It made me think the woman I love secretly loved my best friend, it made me jealous, it made me regret being born, and I didn't take it the right way. I shouted at them, I insulted them, forced her to make a choice that I shouldn't even have asked her to make, ever" I told him. He stared at me silently as I continued my tirade.

"I left them, abandoned them, the last thing I heard was her calling out my name" I told him. "I abandoned my best friend and the love of my life because I couldn't deal with jealousy"

He still didn't say anything.

"That is going to make you think lesser of me, and I'm not asking you for your story, but I just want you to know that I can't think any lesser of you than I think of myself" I told him.

I rose from my chair. "I'm not going to classes tomorrow, make an excuse for me, and whenever you feel like I'm ready to tell me the story, you know where I am" I told him, slamming the door behind me.

I half expected him to give me detention for shouting at him the next day, but it never came. He sat at the breakfast table, but he looked away whenever I looked at him. Was he guilty, or ashamed, or was he angry at me, or was it all the three, I had no idea.

The days began melding and the first year began winding to a close, and as per schedule, we discovered Hagrid's dragon egg. I didn't want a repeat of the last time, and I was torn between stopping something absolutely dangerous, or letting it happen the way it had the last time. That was the next time I went to Dumbledore's office.

"You've been looking away from me" I told him as I sat in the chair, and helped myself to another lemon drop. Those things were pretty delicious.

"I have" he said to me simply.

"Well, I don't care. I need you to know that Hagrid is planning on raising a dragon in the forest" I told him. He raised his eyebrows at that.

"Long story short-"

"What do you want to do?" he asked me.

"What do you mean?" I asked him. If there was one thing Dumbledore was not particularly known for, it was getting to the point.

"This happened the last time, Hagrid is well meaning, but he can be foolish sometimes, which means the dragon is going to hatch, and he is going to let it in the forest"

"Actually, we had to sneak Norberta out of the school, my brother Charlie, who works with dragons took him"

"Norberta?" he asked me, I thought he was trying to suppress a chuckle.

"Yeah, the Norwegian Ridgeback. Hagrid thought he was a male, but it turned out that he was actually a- well- she" I told him.

"Fascinating" he said to me.

"Harry and Hermione got detention for it, and they went to the forest. Voldemort was drinking unicorn blood" I told him.

"If anyone can commit a sin that dire, it would be Tom" he told me.

"He's not your student" I spat at him. "Not anymore, calling him Tom just humanizes him" I told him.

"Yes Ron, but he is a human being, one day he will die" he told me.

"He created Horcruxes with the sole intent of not ever dying"

"Yes, but death doesn't really care, death is something that Tom fears, which is why he created the horcurxes, but what goes up must come down someday, don't you think?" he asked me.

"So you're telling me that I have to decide whether to let things play out as last time?" I asked him. "Or change it?"

"You are the agent of time and fate, so yes, it is up to you, I won't stop you"

I thought about it for a bit, I couldn't help but feel resentful at being called 'the agent of time and fate' and I wondered if that was how Harry felt when he was called The Chosen One way back in my timeline. If he wanted to defeat Voldemort, he was going to have to face all those things that he faced, they were going to help him prepare.

"I want to say that it should happen the way it is, but I can't help but feel like I'm manipulating him, putting him in danger"

"I know that feeling" he told me. "We are quite similar, both of us"

"I'm nothing like you. You are talented, and I'm average. You are so talented that when you fuck up, you end up changing the world"

"Language Ron" he told me, but it wasn't to scold me, his eyes twinkled. "But that is well put. My mistakes do end up being pretty big don't they? Gellert, Tom, the list just keeps getting big" he told me.

"Your mistakes led you to your own grave" I told him.

"How did I die?" he asked me.

"Snape killed you" I told him, not caring if he knew about the future. "You should get rid of him yeah?"

"Severus would never betray me" he told me. I couldn't help but feel rage at that, here I was telling him that Snape was responsible for his death, and on his chair he sat, confidently refuting what I'd just said. For someone so smart, he was being awfully stupid at the moment.

"Well, he did kill you, why do you think he'll never betray you?" I asked him.

"Not my secret to tell" he told me, and I sighed. Another thing he wasn't telling me. "So your decision is to let things play out?"

I nodded.

"It's going to suck being bitten by a dragon again" I told him.

"Ron, maybe you should come up with another excuse to justify your absence from detention" he told me. "One that involves not getting a dragon bite"

I nodded again, that was indeed a good idea. I rose and told him that I was going to have to leave, as I was about to exit, he spoke again.

"By the way Ron" he told me, I stopped and turned to look at him.

"There is nothing average about admitting your mistakes, actually, there is something great about it, and it didn't make me think less of you, it made me think of you in a more positive light"

I had no idea what it meant, or maybe I did and I wasn't willing to admit it.

The events played out the way they were supposed to play out, and I couldn't help but feel guilty as Harry told me about his escapades in the Forbidden Forest. I couldn't help but dread what happened as we wrote our exams later on. Dumbledore still hadn't reached out to me after our brief meeting, and the days were passing by very quickly. Then we heard Hagrid tell us how he got the dragon egg, and it was time.

I rushed to the office before Harry could come to the conclusion that the stone was going to be stolen tonight.

"Harry thinks it's Snape" I told him as I barged in the office, he was writing something down on a piece of paper. "Philosopher's Stone" I told him.

"It's Quirrell, I know already" he told me. "But you should probably stop him yourself right?" he asked me.

"Harry stops him, I just help" I told him.

"You do more than 'just' help" he told me. "The shame is that you never realize that"

"Did your weird conquests and dreams also give you the unfortunate ability to speak in riddles?" I asked him, and he laughed at that. He actually laughed.

"That is a very funny thing Ron, you do have a great sense of humor"

"Yes" I said to him dryly. "I'm hilarious"

"You really are more than just help Ron, and the way you handled yourself at the cottage, you survived" he told me.

"No thanks to you"

Dumbledore laughed again. "I really am sorry about that Ron, but it's time you forgive me for that, I told you exactly what happened there didn't I?" he asked me.

"You never did tell me the entire story"

"Ron, will telling you the entire story help you?"

"I don't know" I told him.

"I'll tell you, after you deal with this today. I suppose I'm going to have to leave the school right?" he asked me. I nodded.

"Fill up on your supplies of lemon drops" I told him, looking at the now empty jar. He laughed again.

Later that day, Harry went to look for Dumbledore but ran into McGonagall instead, and realized that he was going to have to do something about it himself. Events played out like they always did, Neville tried to stop us, we stopped him. We played music for Fluffy and he fell asleep. We went down the trap door and fell onto devil's snare. I didn't give Hermione the chance to panic and lit the fire myself, the devil's snare retreated.

I couldn't help but feel like it was bollocks as I saw Harry catch the key snitch, it was the one with slightly ruffled feathers. The protections were something anyone could have gotten past, the only one that actually mattered was the mirror, Dumbledore's mirror, and I hadn't seen Snape's puzzle, but I was sure it was tougher than anything we'd have to do.

And then I came across the chess board, Harry was rook and Hermione was bishop again, while I was a knight.

I was a lot older this time though, and the chess was ridiculously easy, almost like the chessboard wanted to lose. I smiled as I took another piece and watched with a smirk. There was no choice, the opponent had walked into it's own trap, and one capture later, it was checkmate. This time I didn't even have to get smashed to bits.

I watched Hermione decode the logic behind the bottles, then I cringed as I realized there was only enough for one. We decided that Harry was going to be the one to go through, and we waited.

-x-

I watched as Harry's eyes fluttered open, as per the schedule, he had missed the quidditch match again and Oliver Wood was a sad sight to see, but Harry was alright. I couldn't help but feel guilty for putting him through this. And yet I wasn't going to be able to tell him anything in the future, however I consoled myself, nothing sounded convincing though, how was I going to navigate next year, when my own sister was going to be possessed. I needed to plan things out more carefully this time.

"It was Quirrell" Harry said to me, he sounded weak.

"You need to eat" I told him, shoving a box of beans in his direction. He smiled as he took one.

"You gave us a right bloody scare" I lied. I wasn't scared of whether something was going to happen to him, I was scared of not being scared, of underestimating fate and time, of manipulating him into almost getting killed.

'Calm down' I said to myself before a panic attack was going to sweep in.

"Awake then Harry" it was Dumbledore who walked into the hospital wing. "I believe you do have a visitor" he told me.

I watched as a clean shaven Sirius Black walked in, and while I was happy to see an old friend again, I couldn't help but think that something was going to give out.

"Just like your father, first year and already getting into trouble" he said to Harry with a smile on his face, and Harry smiled right back at him. Sirius then turned his attention toward me.

"Ah, the red hair has to mean you're Ron" he said. I nodded, and Sirius came over and gave me a hug before ruffling my hair, something he had never done in the past life. "You're padfoot to his prongs" he told me.

"I have no idea what you're talking about" I lied, I knew exactly what he was talking about.

"Long story" he told me. "I look forward to telling you"

"I look forward to listening to it" I told him.

I then looked at Dumbledore, who nodded at me and then I left the wing, Harry needed his time with Sirius and I needed time alone.

The end of the year feast was pretty much the same. I got fifty points for a great game of chess, Hermione got it for demonstration of cool logic, Harry got sixty for being the savior and Neville got ten for standing up to us.

"He totally just wanted us to win" I told Fred and George who just agreed. But Neville did deserve his points and I was going to have to make up to him.

Sirius enthusiastically cheered the Gryffindor win, and the next morning we were supposed to get on the train for the last time that year. That night was going to be the last night I was going to see Dumbledore for another two months, and I was determined to find out exactly what had happened to him that changed him.

As I reached his office door, I heard some slightly raised voices, one of them was Sirius, the other was Dumbledore. I decided that intruding on this moment was probably not a good idea and decided to hide.

"There is no need to hide Mr Weasley, you can come out now" the voice called out. I grumbled about Dumbledore being too aware for his own good and then made my way towards the two of them. Sirius did not look happy at all.

"Hey Ron" he said to me as I came over.

"Hey" I said to him. "Sorry about spying"

"No problems" Sirius told me. "Maybe you can help convince our barmy headmaster that what he's doing is absolutely foolish"

He was probably talking about sending Harry back to his relatives.

"You're sending Harry back to the Dursleys?" I asked him.

"Well spotted Ron" Dumbledore told me, he then looked at Sirius and added "He's really perceptive isn't he?"

Sirius nodded in agreement and I just blushed a little.

"Tell him Ron" Sirius told me. "Tell him that he's being stupid here"

"You're asking a student to insult the headmaster?" I asked him chuckling. I then turned towards the headmaster. "If I may Professor, he is right, I think you should consider having Harry stay over with him, or if not him then us" I told him.

"There are my reasons for him not staying at The Burrow, or with you Sirius" Dumbledore told both of us. "And that is final"

"This is ridiculous" Sirius said to Dumbledore. "I'm going to head out, I'll meet you guys at the station alright?" he said looking at me. I nodded and waved him goodbye as he left.

Soon after everything was settled, I was back in Dumbledore's office, and we were talking about what happened to him in his youth, and he told me about his sister, how she was tortured by some muggles, how his father was punished for cursing them, how he grew obsessed with The Deathly Hallows (which is what he called them), how Aberforth, his brother had tried to stop him, and the fight.

I didn't know how to react, except in shock and disbelief that someone as great as Dumbledore could be so fallible. And his follies were dangerous, but then again, I'd already said this to him before.

"What do you think now?" he asked me.

"I don't know" I said to him as I reached out to take a lemon drop from the now replenished jar. "But it doesn't matter"

"Why doesn't it matter?" he asked me.

"If you could have changed it, you would have. I'm just glad I get the chance to correct my mistakes"

We didn't say much and I left soon after that, still not sure about what to do with all the new information.

-x-

The mood was somber at breakfast the next morning. I suppose people were happy that they were going to start their summer holidays, but Harry hated the Dursleys and Hermione loved school, and both of them looked glum at the prospect of not seeing the castle for another two months.

"Hey" I said to Hermione, as we sat in the common room, for the last time for two months.

"Hey" she said softly.

"I'm going to miss this" I told her, she nodded and let out a small 'me too'

"I'm going to miss all of you" I told her. "Harry is not coming to the Burrow and you're going somewhere right?"

"I'm taking a vacation in France Ron" she told me smiling. "We do this every year, but this year I wish I could be at The Burrow" she told me.

"There are six more years" I told her. "You'll figure something out"

Fred and George seemed jovial that the school year was finally at a close, Percy looked worried and wondered if he had done well on his OWLS. If I remember correctly, he had gotten around eight OWLS, then again I could be wrong. It had happened before.

It was with a heavy heart we said good bye to each other as we reached King's Cross, but there was always going to be another year, and I was going to have to plan this out carefully.

* * *

><p><strong>I know this chapter was a bit on the shorter side, it was mostly Ron Dumbledore interaction, but I was mostly just trying to get that first year out of the way. I will expand on this story now and the next few years should me much longer, so I want you guys to keep reviewing and telling me what you think. Send in pairing ideas for the other characters if you want to see something particular.<strong>

**Please continue to read and support this story by leaving a review.**


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